


prize for rotten judgment

by zero_miles



Series: salt squad [2]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: (i didn't think it was that angsty but my readers...disagree), Alternate Universe - Bakery, Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Relationship, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Underage Drinking, M/M, Misunderstandings, Multi, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 03:16:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 34,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18379829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zero_miles/pseuds/zero_miles
Summary: All Doyoung wants is for Kun (and Ten, but especially Kun) to leave him alone.Really.





	1. play along with the charade

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello! :D this is the second work of a series -- part one, you bake my day, focuses on taeil/johnny. i *think* you'll be able to read this fic and understand it without reading ybmd, though!
> 
> quick timeline note: this chapter takes place during ybmd’s time skip! so we will eventually get to the events of ybmd’s last chapter...and a conversation that was missing from it...

**February**

“Doie.”

The look on Yuta’s face when Doyoung looks up from his laptop reminds him of the ones that Donghyuck or Jaemin have when they’re up to no good but want to convince everyone otherwise. It puts Doyoung on edge immediately. “Yes?”

“I’m having a party in a couple of weeks to celebrate us making it through another Valentine’s Day alive. And for all of the birthdays this month too, but mostly Valentine’s Day,” Yuta says.

“I’m busy that night,” Doyoung says immediately.

Yuta raises one eyebrow. “I didn’t tell you when it’s happening.”

Fuck. “Well, if you’re having a party, obviously Taeil will be there which means I’ll have to be the one to close the bakery that night, right?” Doyoung reasons. Not even Yuta can fault the logic there, he thinks, which is why it’s a surprise when a smirk that he would definitely classify as _evil_ spreads across Yuta’s face.

“We’re closing Crumbles at two o’clock the day of the party, and not opening up at all the day after. Everyone’s going to need a break if we make it through the next two weeks alive.”

Doyoung snorts. “Yeah, okay. Sure we are. Come back to me when you get Taeil on board with that one,” he says, shaking his head as he turns back to his laptop. These supply forms won’t fill out themselves, after all.

“I already did,” Yuta informs him, sounding smug as fuck. “Have you forgotten that Johnny’s birthday is in February too? And Jaehyun’s? Taeil was on board the second I brought up the idea. You literally can’t get out of this, Doie.”

“Motherfucker,” Doyoung mutters. “You trapped me.”

Yuta shrugs, clearly unconcerned. “Nah. You trapped yourself. But seriously, think of this as an employee meeting. Just, you know, with a bunch of other people and a lot of alcohol involved.”

Doyoung’s eyebrows shoot up. “The kids are underage.”

“They’re in college. Do you really think they’ve never had an adult beverage or five before?”

“ _Yuta_.”

“Fine,” Yuta huffs. “We won’t let them drink. But they’re still coming. They’ve all already said yes. And I will sic Jeno on you if you keep arguing about this, Doie.”

Doyoung rolls his eyes. “Fine. I’ll be there, since I clearly don’t have a choice,” he says begrudgingly. He mostly doesn’t want to be faced with Jeno’s sad eyes again, and he knows damn well Yuta is aware of that fact. “Now leave me the hell alone, unless you want Taeil to drag you to Costco again tomorrow because I didn’t get the order submitted in time.”

Yuta visibly shudders. “God, no. The last time we had to go Johnny came with us and I’ve never felt more like a third wheel in my entire life. They were in their own world and it was disgusting. Sweet, but disgusting.”

“Interesting,” Doyoung says, looking pointedly at the clock on the wall behind Yuta’s head. “If you keep bothering me, you’ll get to experience it again.”

“Leaving!” Yuta yelps, backing out of the office. He slams the door closed so hard that the desk rattles, but Doyoung can’t bring himself to be pissed about it. This time, anyways.

 

***

 

“Doie,” Jungwoo drawls, sitting down next to Doyoung on the couch and draping himself against Doyoung’s side. “You look annoyed,” he says bluntly.

“Gee, I wonder why,” Doyoung snaps. Jungwoo’s face falls, and Doyoung immediately feels guilty. “Shit, Woo, I’m not upset with you. I’m sorry,” he adds quickly, wiggling his left arm from underneath Jungwoo’s body in order to pet his hair. “I’m upset with myself, mostly, I think.”

It’s true. He really, really should have realized that Yuta mentioning that this party of his was partially to celebrate both Johnny _and_ Jaehyun’s birthdays meant that the entire Tiers of Joy crew was invited. Something that obvious doesn’t normally slip by him but there’s always an exception to the norm or some shit and tonight that exception had led to him slamming the door in Ten and Kun’s stunned faces when they’d showed up half an hour after everyone else had.

“Wow, sorry about that. Seeing a demon manifest in front of me freaked me out a little, you know?” he’d managed once he’d opened the door back up about ten seconds later. Doyoung had expected a scathing retort from Ten – was steeling himself for one, even – but Ten had just smiled _indulgently_ at him.

“That’s a good one. Have you been waiting to use it for a while?” he’d asked, as Kun had taken him by the wrist and led him inside Yuta’s apartment. It had left Doyoung feeling supremely discomfited, so he’d retreated to the couch to sulk in silence and was doing a bang up fucking job of it until Jungwoo had spotted him.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jungwoo asks, sounding adorably confused. And also a little drunk, Doyoung realizes. “Is it because Ten’s here? Didn’t you know they were coming? Jaehyun told me they’d be here ages ago.”

Doyoung closes his eyes. “I didn’t really realize they would be here, no. But I’m not bothered by Ten being here, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

Jungwoo pokes him in the side until he opens his eyes again, and when he does it’s to see Jungwoo frowning at him, leaning in close enough that Doyoung can smell the alcohol on his breath. “Lying is bad for you, Doie,” he admonishes.

“It’s the truth. I’m not bothered by _Ten_ being here,” he repeats. The earlier moment of weirdness aside, he knows what to expect from Ten and it’s not anything he can’t deal with.

Kun being here, on the other hand? That bothers Doyoung more than he’ll ever let on.

Jungwoo sinks back into the couch and crosses his arms over his chest. “I don’t believe you, but okay,” he capitulates. “But you look like you need a drink. Jaehyun was making punch whenever I came to find you. He sent me away so I wouldn’t learn his secret recipe,” he adds, lower lip wobbling like he’s trying to hold in a pout.

“I didn’t know you and Jaehyun were friends,” Doyoung comments idly.

“Yeah, you need a drink,” Jungwoo says firmly, springing to his feet with much more grace than Doyoung would have anticipated. “Come on.”

 

***

 

Apparently, Jaehyun’s secret punch recipe is “all of the alcohol”, but in a way that it doesn’t taste like alcohol at all. Doyoung’s almost positive that he sees Yukhei slipping some of the death punch to Renjun at one point, but like, both the death punch and the normal punch are bright red so it’s not like he can _really_ be certain. He’s also too drunk to care about – well, anything, really. Or so he thinks.

It turns out that seeing Kun crowding Ten against the hall outside of Yuta’s bathroom and whispering into his ear is the one thing that Doyoung isn’t too drunk to care about. Or maybe he’s so drunk that it’s the only thing he could care about. He really doesn’t know anything besides the anger that bubbles up inside of him at the sight.

“You!” Doyoung shrieks, pointing a wavering finger at Kun accusingly.

“Me?” Kun asks, leaning back from Ten to give Doyoung a pointed once over. “What did I do?”

“You know what you did,” Doyoung says angrily. “You fucking asshole.”

Ten tilts his head up and narrows his eyes at Kun, but even drunken Doyoung can see the smile twitching at the corner of his lips. “What did you do, Kunkun?” he asks. Teases, really, and it pisses Doyoung off even more. He lets out a strangled scream of frustration, and watches as Ten’s face falls.

“We shouldn’t talk about this here. Let’s find someplace private to talk about this, yeah?” he asks, reaching out and taking Doyoung’s wrist in his hand much like he had Ten’s earlier. Doyoung knows that normally, someone touching him in such a familiar manner without permission would have him ready to fucking fight, but he allows Kun to lead him and Ten both into Yuta’s bedroom. Surely it’s the alcohol running through his veins that’s to blame.

Or maybe not, because the indignant anger returns the second that the door’s closed behind them and Kun releases his grip on Doyoung’s wrist. “You have so much nerve,” Doyoung tells Kun shakily, “to show up here with your _boyfriend_ and act like what you’re doing isn’t super fucked up.”

“What the fuck,” Ten all but snarls, balling his hands into fists at his sides, “is that supposed to mean?”

Kun puts his hand on the back of Ten’s neck and squeezes. “Not what you’re thinking, Ten,” he murmurs. “Calm down.”

Ten’s hands uncurl, but his glare doesn’t lessen. If anything, it intensifies. “What is Kun doing that’s so wrong, Doyoung?” he asks icily.

God, it’s worse than Doyoung thought if Ten is still clueless months after the fact. “He hits on me every chance he gets!” he cries. “And he means it, too. I can tell. It would be flattering if you guys weren’t together but since you are, it just means he’s a real dick. You could do so much better, Ten,” he adds earnestly.

“Aww, and here I thought you hated me,” Ten coos, his glare dissipating in a matter of seconds.

“You’re flattered by me flirting with you?” Kun asks, grinning.

“Literally not the fucking point, Kun!” Doyoung yells. “The point is that you’re an asshole!”

Kun and Ten exchange a look that Doyoung’s fuzzy brain can’t decipher. “I don’t mind,” Ten shrugs.

“You don’t mind that your boyfriend hits on other people?” Doyoung asks skeptically.

“I don’t mind that he hits on _you_ ,” Ten clarifies. “I’d be pissed if he hit on random people on the street, but you? Yeah, nope, he has my blessing. Would you be flattered if I hit on you, too?”

 _Yes_ , Doyoung thinks. “No,” he says petulantly, sitting down on the edge of Yuta’s bed. “I don’t like either of you at all.”

“I know, baby,” Kun says in a way that raises Doyoung’s hackles.

“Stop mocking me,” he says crossly. “Also, I’m older than you. You can fuck off with that baby shit.”

Kun smiles. “Actually, you’re not. My birthday was last month, and I heard one of your kids saying your birthday was at the start of this month.”

Doyoung glowers up at him. “Also, I’m not your damn boyfriend so you shouldn’t be calling me that anyways.”

“Huh,” Ten murmurs, just barely loud enough for Doyoung to hear him.

“What?” Doyoung snaps.

“Nothing,” Ten says hurriedly. “But seriously, Doyoung, I’m not offended or bothered by Kun flirting with you sometimes. If it truly bothers you, he’ll stop,” he continues, shooting a quick look in Kun’s direction, “but please don’t think he’s an asshole because of it. Okay?”

“Okay,” Doyoung echoes, feeling all the fight drain out of his body. But the sudden loss of adrenaline means that fatigue crashes into him like a ton of bricks. Keeping his eyes open is suddenly a struggle.

Someone – he’s not sure who, but they’re going to die later if he ever figures it out – coos at him. “I’ll go get Taeil or Yuta,” Ten says, sounding amused.

“Good idea, babe,” Kun answers, and Doyoung’s still aware enough of his surroundings to make a derisive noise.

“I still think you’re a dick,” Doyoung informs Kun, squinting at him in an effort to keep his eyes open.

Kun chuckles lowly. “That’s alright with me. I have plenty of time to change your mind.”

 

***

 

Doyoung knows that he’s not in his own bed the second he opens his eyes – he has blackout curtains in his room so the sun won’t bother him when he’s trying to sleep in, but right now it feels like the sun is on a personal mission to blind him.

“Ow,” he whimpers. A quick scan of the room tells him that he’s in Yuta’s spare bedroom. He doesn’t know how he got here, but he suspects Taeil or Yuta himself had something to do with it.

Taeil chuckles from the doorway. “You went kind of hard last night for someone who didn’t even want to be here,” he says amusedly. “You were pretty much passed out by the time I came to find you. It was nice of Kun to keep you company.”

The memories of the night before come flooding back then, and Doyoung groans. He’d made such a fucking fool out of himself. Thank god no one else had been around to see it; if he’d acted that way around someone who’s opinion he actually cared about, he wouldn’t know how to handle it. “Jungwoo kept giving me cups of death punch,” he says defensively. It’s true enough.

“Death punch is a good word for it,” Taeil agrees. “Are you too hungover to eat? Yuta’s making crepes for breakfast if you’re not.”

Honestly, he probably is, but Doyoung would have to be at death’s door to pass up Yuta’s crepes. “I can eat.”

“Good,” Taeil says, smiling so wide that his eyes crinkle. “Oh, hey. By the way, Johnny told me that Kun asked him for your number when they left last night, so if you get a text from an unknown number it’s probably from him.”

Doyoung coughs to cover his surprise. “Okay, uh, cool. Thanks, Taeil. I’ll be out in a second.”

Taeil studies him for a moment. “Alright,” he says, closing the door gently behind him.

Doyoung wants to pretend he doesn’t care if Kun texted him or not, but it takes maybe twenty seconds for curiosity to get the best of him. He has seven new messages when he unlocks his phone; five from Jungwoo, all of which are vaguely apologetic, and not one but two messages from unknown numbers.

Doyoung considers blocking them both.

He saves both numbers to his contacts instead, but leaves them on read. It seems like a fair compromise for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> remember when i said on twitter the other day that i didn't think i would be able to get the first chapter of this fic out until may? procrastination sure is a bitch...ha...ha...ha...
> 
> anyways, a couple housekeeping type things:
> 
> \- according to my outline, this fic will be seven or eight chapters long. i think. it's not set in stone yet. as soon as i nail that down, i will update the chapter count on the fic!
> 
> \- at least right now, this fic won't have an update schedule like you bake my day did; i'll have more free time in the summer so that might change by then but for now, updates will be sporadic. sorry :(
> 
> \- and as always, come say hi on [twitter](https://twitter.com/zeromiles5) or [cc](https://curiouscat.me/zeromiles5) if you'd like! i'm very curious to see what y'all think of this first chapter, and if you can see where i might be going with this! :D


	2. new (and a bit alarming)

**March**

The sound of Doyoung’s phone ringing rips him out of a particularly nice dream featuring two people whose faces he never could identify and a sunny beach somewhere back into reality. Instead of the sun beating down on his shoulders, he’s in his own bed, one too many blankets piled on top of him, with his phone screen being the only source of light. The call drops before Doyoung can answer it, but he reaches out for it anyways; he knows he won’t be able to get back to sleep until he makes sure that the call hadn’t been important.

His phone starts ringing again the second he picks it up, and he accepts the call with a groan. “Hello?”

“Doyoung?” Taeil croaks out. Oh, _no_. “I’m really sorry, please don’t hate me.”

“You sound like shit,” Doyoung says bluntly. “Are you alright?”

“No,” Taeil answers, even though it had pretty much been a rhetorical question. “I’ve been up almost all night –”

“Please spare me the details,” Doyoung shudders. “You need me to open the bakery, right?” he asks, sitting up and swinging his legs over the edge of his bed.

Taeil exhales directly into his speaker, making the line go staticky for a brief second. “Yeah. Yuta closed last night and is scheduled to close again tonight, and Jungwoo asked for the day off. I’ll make it up to you, I swear,” he adds, his voice cracking on the last syllable.

Doyoung winces. “Jesus, Taeil, it’s fine. You should really go back to bed. It’s…what time is it, anyway?” he asks.

“Almost five,” Taeil says, almost guiltily. Doyoung closes his eyes and fights the urge to grind his teeth; if that’s truly the case, there’s almost no way short of a miracle that will get Crumbles open on time today. Not when the opener is supposed to _be_ there at five, and the absolute best case scenario is that Doyoung gets there half an hour after he hangs up the phone. _Fuck_.

Even when sick, Taeil can apparently understand that Doyoung’s lack of reaction is due to frustration. “I know,” he says miserably. “I wanted to go down, but I just can’t make it. Johnny threatened to handcuff me to my bed if I tried.”

“Jesus Christ, Taeil, that is way too much information,” Doyoung groans, but he’s not surprised. He’s more than used to the way that Taeil’s filter completely disappears when he’s drunk or sick.

“It’s fine, it’ not like anything would come of it,” Taeil protests. “I’d probably throw up on his dick or something.”

“Taeil!” Doyoung shouts. Screams, really.

There’s some rustling on the other line, followed up by a cough that definitely doesn’t sound like Taeil. “Sorry about that,” Johnny says sheepishly, confirming Doyoung’s suspicions. “I had no idea he gets so wild when he’s sick.”

“Well, he does,” Doyoung mutters. “It’s whatever, Johnny. I need to go, I’m already behind.”

“Wait!” Johnny says. “I can totally get Kun to go over there instead of our shop to help you out, at least until you open. He won’t mind, and if he does, he owes me a favor anyways.”

Doyoung has to literally bite his tongue to stop himself from immediately rejecting Johnny’s offer. As much as he has less than zero desire to see Kun, the rational side of his brain knows there’s no way he’ll get everything ready in time without help. Personal feelings aside, Kun’s excellent in the kitchen. “Can you get him there before six?” he asks begrudgingly.

“At the latest,” Johnny promises. “And before you ask, I’m not leaving Taeil alone either. I’ve got it under control. Just go do what you need to do, okay?”

“Okay. Bye, then,” Doyoung says, waiting for Johnny to bid him goodbye before hanging up.

If he screams into his pillow in frustration before standing up, that’s between him and the pillow.

 

***

 

“Good morning,” Kun says silkily when Doyoung lets him in through Crumbles’ back door at 5:45.

“I fail to see what’s so good about it,” Doyoung mutters.

Kun laughs. “Well, for me, it’s a good morning because I get to see your beautiful face when I wasn’t expecting to.”

Doyoung closes his eyes. “I’m really not in the mood for that today, Kun. Please don’t start.”

“Alright, I’ll stop then,” Kun says easily. “Where do you need me to start?”

“Wait,” Doyoung says, opening his eyes back up and tilting his head. “Just like that?”

Kun blinks at him. “Did you really think I wouldn’t stop?”

“Kind of,” Doyoung admits after a moment. “You’ve never stopped before.”

“You never asked me to stop before, though,” Kun points out as he shrugs off his jacket. “You’ve rolled your eyes, made sarcastic remarks, and yelled at me over it while you were drunk, but that’s it. I’m not a bad person, Doyoung,” he admonishes, and Doyoung suddenly feels like maybe he’s the one who’s been the asshole here, not Kun.

Or maybe they’ve both been assholes. That sounds more realistic. It doesn’t make the sudden guilty feeling in the pit of Doyoung’s stomach go away, though.

“I know,” Doyoung says, trying not to let that guilt color his words. “If you were, you wouldn’t be here right now.” _Or send me cat memes almost daily even though I leave you on read just to spite you_ , he adds mentally.

Kun smiles, and it makes his eyes sparkle in the florescent lights of the kitchen. “Exactly. Now, do you have something specific you’d like me to start with, or should I listen to my heart?” he asks, startling a laugh out of Doyoung.

“What is your heart telling you, exactly?” he asks curiously.

“My heart is telling me that I should start with almond cookies.”

“I’m not sure we have a recipe for those,” Doyoung admits.

Kun looks almost offended as he says, “I don’t need a recipe, oh my god. All I need are almonds if you guys have them.”

“What kind of bakery doesn’t have almonds?” Doyoung asks sarcastically.

“What kind of bakery that makes cookies doesn’t have an almond cookie recipe?” Kun snarks right back.

Point taken.

“They’re in the same cabinet as the peanuts and hazelnuts and stuff,” Doyoung tells him, feeling slightly chagrined. “Oh, and do you mind if I turn music back on? I forgot my headphones at home in my rush to get out the door.”

Kun hums. “I don’t mind.”

Working in the kitchen alone with Kun is – well, it’s comfortable, in a way that Doyoung would have never anticipated. It reminds him quite a bit of early mornings here at Crumbles with Taeil or Jungwoo at his side; quiet, but not awkwardly so, save for one or both of them singing along to whatever song’s playing on Doyoung’s phone at the moment.

Kun’s quick, too, although Doyoung kind of expected that. He’s not sure if the almond cookies Kun whips up are actually simple, or if they just seem like it because Kun makes preparing them look easy. Probably the latter, considering that when he moves onto chocolate chip cookies next he gets through them almost as quickly as Taeil would have, had he been here. When Renjun arrives fifteen minutes before opening, the display case isn’t quite as full as it is normally, but it’s more than full enough that they won’t run out of cookies almost immediately if they open on time.

“You saved my life today,” Doyoung admits, watching as Kun expertly transfers a batch of white chocolate macadamia nut cookies from a baking sheet to a cooling rack.

Kun doesn’t pause in his ministrations, even as he turns his head to look at Doyoung and smile at him. “It was nothing,” he dismisses. “I got a text from Johnny, we’re not opening up today. Do you need me to stay a little longer?”

_Yes_ , Doyoung thinks so quickly that he catches himself off guard. But it’s a selfish fucking thought, isn’t it? Kun isn’t even getting paid for this, and he’s been busting his ass for almost two hours now. “I don’t want to keep you too long,” he shrugs.

“That’s not a no,” Kun notes. “So I’m staying.”

Doyoung blinks in confusion. “It kind of was.”

“It really wasn’t. I’ve noticed you have this habit of making people think you’re saying no when you’re really not. Like you’re waiting for someone to understand what you really mean without you having to say it out loud.”

Maybe it’s true, but Kun didn’t have to lay it all out like that, either, fuck. “And you think you’re that someone?”

Kun’s smile, which had never left his face, turns sharp; combined with the way his eyes seem to darken, it feels kind of predatory. A lot predatory, really, and it sends a thrill down Doyoung’s spine. “Maybe I am.”

A scream of delight from the front of Crumbles shatters the tension that was beginning to build between the two of them. Renjun skids into the kitchen a moment later.

“I didn’t know we made almond cookies,” he says breathlessly, his eyes sparkling. “Oh, hey, what’s Kun doing here? He doesn’t work here.”

“Taeil’s sick today, so Johnny asked Kun if he could come by this morning and help me out so we could open Crumbles on time. He’s the one who made the almond cookies this morning,” Doyoung tells him.

Renjun’s face falls. “Oh.”

“Hey,” Doyoung says, crossing the kitchen in three strides so that he can put his arm around Renjun. “Are almond cookies something you think we should add to the menu?”

“They’re my favorite,” Renjun says, his voice carefully neutral.

“Alright,” Doyoung says easily. “I’ll have to talk to Yuta and Taeil first, but I can’t see either of them having a problem with us adding them to our normal menu.”

“Really?”

Doyoung snorts. “Yes, really, Junnie. Everyone else’s favorite cookie is on the menu, why shouldn’t yours be? It already would have been if you had mentioned it before.”

Renjun beams up at him. “That’s – awesome. Okay. Thank you.”

Doyoung barely resists the urge to ruffle the kid’s hair, if only for the knowledge that his revenge would be swift yet calculated. “You’re welcome. Go unlock the doors and come get me if you need me.”

“I can leave you my recipe if you’d like,” Kun offers once Renjun is out of earshot.

“That would be nice of you,” Doyoung accepts. “Thank you.”

Kun nods. “Of course. Just know I’m always willing to help you in any way I can, Doyoung, if you’re willing to let me.”

“Okay,” Doyoung says quietly. He has the distinct impression that Kun isn’t just talking about Crumbles-related things, and he’s really not sure how he feels about it. But that’s something to think about on his own time.

 

***

 

**10**

Doyoung?

Doyoung, are you there?

Can you answer me, please? This is actually important

…

Fine. I didn’t want to do this. You brought this upon yourself.

Your read receipts are on. I can literally see you reading my texts  
as they come in.

 

“Fuck,” Doyoung curses.

 

**Doyoung**

What the hell do you want?

 

**10**

You’re alive!!

 

**Doyoung**

I’m blocking you, bye.

 

**10**

Nooo don’t, this is important

Can you meet me at the Starbucks near your work  
tomorrow afternoon? Around two?

 

**Doyoung**

Why would I do that?

 

**10**

I’ll explain tomorrow. But I wouldn’t be asking if it  
wasn’t important.

Listen. If I end up wasting your time, I will delete your  
number. You will never hear from me ever again. Are  
you convinced yet?

 

**Doyoung**

I’ll see you at two tomorrow. Goodnight.

 

**10**

It’s not even noon yet…

 

**Doyoung**

Goodnight, Ten.

 

***

 

“So, you definitely annoyed the hell out of Kun whenever you actually answered me yesterday while continuing to ignore his messages,” Ten says cheerfully whenever Doyoung sits down across from him.

Doyoung had arrived early, expecting to have to wait god only knew how long for Ten to show up, only to find Ten camped out at a table against the front windows looking bored. Doyoung might have been fooled by his outer appearance if it wasn’t for the napkin torn to shreds on the table in front of him; he’s nervous about something, but Doyoung can’t imagine what.

“Why should that matter to me?” Doyoung asks, tearing the wrapper from his straw and jabbing it into the lid of his drink.

Ten’s smile is wicked. “Thought you’d appreciate knowing that you got under his skin the way he gets under yours.”

“Maybe,” Doyoung says, trying for unaffected and missing by a mile if the way that Ten’s smile widens is anything to go by. “Whatever. It’s not like there’s anything I can say in response to cat memes, anyways.”

Ten laughs out loud. “I’ve told him the same thing, but he loves them. It’s cute, don’t you think?”

Doyoung looks down at his hands. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear to god you were trying to set me up with your boyfriend.”

“Well,” Ten says.

“If that’s why you brought me here, I’m leaving and blocking both of your numbers,” Doyoung tells him. When Ten doesn’t answer right away, he sighs and shoves his chair back, wincing when it scrapes across the floor. So much for giving Ten the benefit of the doubt.

“No, no!” Ten exclaims quickly, sounding – panicked? “I was just screwing with you, and I’m sorry if I offended you, but I asked you to meet me here because I have a favor to ask. I just don’t know _how_ to ask it.”

What the fuck? “We’ve literally never had a civil conversation,” Doyoung says incredulously, “and you’re asking me for a favor?”

“We have, just not while you’ve been sober,” Ten points out. “And yeah. I am. Just hear me out, please?”

“I mean, I’m here, so what the fuck ever. Hit me.”

Ten visibly steels himself. “I know this sounds weird, but would you please let me know the next time your bakery is hiring?”

That was not what Doyoung was expecting to hear. At all. “Um, what?”

“I asked you to please tell me whenever Crumbles is hiring next.”

“I heard you the first time, Ten. I just don’t understand why you’re asking me. If you wanted to work in a bakery so badly, I’m sure Johnny would hire you.”

Ten’s eyes widen. “No. No, I literally can’t ask Johnny. And it’s not for me either. Trust me, Johnny’s tried getting me to help him out before. I’ve turned him down every time. How do you think Kun started working for him?”

There’s honestly a lot to unpack there, but Doyoung really doesn’t feel like being here all day. “So if you don’t want to know when we’re hiring for your own sake, then why do you want to know?”

“Okay. So. I’m a dance instructor. I own my own studio and everything a couple of miles from here. I figure you probably didn’t know that, because you’re right when you say that we’ve never had a truly civil conversation before,” Ten shrugs. “Anyways. One of my kids is a prodigy. Wins every competition I put him in, pretty much. But travelling for competitions can be expensive, and his family’s fallen on hard times. I managed to convince him that there was a scholarship I could give him to cover his lessons and extra studio time, but he won’t let me cover his travel expenses. He’s too proud. Kids, you know?” Ten sighs, shaking his head.

“I know,” Doyoung murmurs. And he does – Donghyuck’s car had broken down around Halloween last year, and they’d only found out about it when Jeno accidentally let the cat out of the bag nearly two weeks later even though it meant he’d been walking to and from work and school whenever Jeno was busy. Even then, he’d only allowed them to give him rides; he’d flatly rejected Taeil’s offer to pay to get his car fixed.

“He’s been looking for a job, but the places he applies to either take one look at his availability and throw his application out or tell him he’s too young because he’s only seventeen,” Ten continues. “When he told me that, I remembered that Johnny once mentioned that you guys hired one of your kids when they were still in high school too, so I thought maybe asking you to let me know if you guys were hiring was worth a shot.”

Doyoung clears his throat. “Is that why you can’t ask Johnny? This kid would think you asked Johnny to give him a job?”

Ten nods, looking defeated. “Yeah. And he’d be offended, and then Johnny would be disappointed too because he loves Jisung. At least you don’t like me, so there’s plausible deniability there if anything ever comes of this.”

“Yeah,” Doyoung says faintly. He’s starting to realize that maybe he completely misjudged Ten – which makes sense, considering how they met, but maybe him holding a grudge for the better part of the year makes him the asshole. Or the biggest asshole, because it’s not like Ten’s an angel either.

“But that was it, pretty much,” Ten says, sweeping the shredded napkin off the table and into one of his hands. “I know you probably have other stuff to do today, so I won’t keep you any longer, but thanks for listening to me and at least entertaining me. You know how to reach me,” he concludes, standing up. It’s pretty obvious that Ten feels awkward and is trying to make a quick exit, and normally Doyoung would make a snarky remark, but – it doesn’t feel like the time.

“I’m not a complete dick,” Doyoung says instead.

Ten smiles at him. “I know. And I’m not, either.”

“I know,” Doyoung echoes. “I know.”

 

***

 

Doyoung opens the door to Crumbles and is met by screams. Not just any screams, but screams that sound an awful lot like someone is being murdered in the kitchen. The two customers sitting in one of the corners look completely unbothered. So do Taeil and Yuta, standing at the register.

“Um, what’s happening?” Doyoung asks tentatively as he approaches the register. “Why aren’t you guys back there? Who’s dying?”

“Hyuck, I think,” Yuta answers, and now that he mentions it, the screams do sound like they’re coming from Donghyuck. “And I’m certain he brought it upon himself.”

That’s not an answer, so Doyoung turns to stare at Taeil imploringly. Taeil stares back for a solid minute before his resolve breaks. “Jungwoo’s testing recipes today. Renjun’s back there with him because one of the recipes are the almond cookies he loves, and Donghyuck wanted to help too…” he trails off. Apparently Donghyuck hasn’t learned – or forgot, which is more likely – not to fuck with Jungwoo when he’s in the zone.

But still… “Aren’t we even a little concerned that he’s back there with both Woo and Renjun and screaming like that? They might actually kill him.”

“He hid literally all of our salt while they weren’t paying attention to him,” Yuta says, the corners of his mouth twitching. “Like I said, he brought it upon himself.”

“Okay, yeah,” Doyoung concedes. He’s pretty sure even _Taeil_ would be trying to strangle Donghyuck after a stunt like that (not that Donghyuck would ever do something like that to Taeil).

Taeil props his elbows on the counter and puts his chin on his hands. “But what’s up, Doie? You don’t usually stop in on your days off.”

Doyoung tries to laugh, but grimaces instead. It’s been three days since he met with Ten, and everything Ten told him has been pretty much the only thing on his mind ever since. Ten managed to find one of his few weaknesses, whether he knew it or not. “I was thinking about Crumbles,” he says. “And, uh, our staff.”

“What about our staff?” Taeil asks. “I was literally looking at our expense and profit reports before the screaming drove me out of the kitchen, I know we don’t have to cut hours or let anyone go. If anything, we could afford to hire more people if we decided to do so,” he continues, and Doyoung suddenly feels ten pounds lighter. Taeil never says anything he doesn’t mean, and he rarely says anything he hasn’t thought through.

“I was actually going to ask if you guys had considered hiring anyone new,” Doyoung tells them.

Taeil exchanges a quick look with Yuta. “Do you have someone in mind?” Yuta asks shrewdly.

“Someone I know knows a kid with a good work ethic who could use a job,” he answers vaguely, hoping like hell neither of them will call him out on it. He doesn’t know how in the fuck he would even begin to explain that ‘someone he knows’ is _Ten_ of all people.

“Sounds a little shady, not gonna lie,” Yuta comments.

Taeil punches him in the arm. “Maybe, but we trust each other around here,” he tells Yuta sternly. “We could definitely use another person whose sole responsibilities are in the front of the shop though, Doyoung. Tell the kid you’re talking about to stop by sometime next week while I’m here, and I’ll set up an interview.”

“Thank you.”

“Of course,” Taeil says, right as another scream pierces the air. It’s followed up by the sound of glass shattering and more yelling, which can mean nothing good.

“I think you might actually have to go save Hyuck now,” Doyoung says cautiously, taking a step backwards. “I’m just gonna…go. Have fun with all that, and make sure the kitchen’s put back together before I come in tomorrow please.”

“No,” Yuta protests, but to no avail. It’s Doyoung’s day off. He’s not going to stick around to help deal with the fallout of whatever just happened in the kitchen. No fucking way.

 

***

 

**Doyoung**

Hey. Tell your student to stop by Crumbles sometime  
next week and talk to Taeil. I’m sure Johnny can tell you  
when he’ll be there.

 

**10**

Wait, what?

 

**Doyoung**

Do I need to resend the last text?

 

**10**

No, I got it, I just didn’t expect this tbh

You’re not hiring him out of pity or anything are you?

 

**Doyoung**

Taeil’s the one who mentioned that we could hire someone else  
first. I just told him I knew someone who knew someone who  
needed a job. That’s all.

 

**Ten**

In that case, thank you. I’ll let him know.

♡

 

***

 

**Kun (Tiers of Joy)**

 

**Doyoung**

That is…deeply unsettling, holy shit

 

**Kun (Tiers of Joy)**

You’re alive!!

 

**Doyoung**

Obviously.

 

**Kun (Tiers of Joy)**

You’re not ignoring me anymore!

 

**Doyoung**

Don’t get used to it.

 

**Kun (Tiers of Joy)**

:((

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello hello! i am back! thank you so much for the amazing response to the first chapter!! it made me so happy during a stressful time, ngl. a quick head's up, chapter 3 will probably not be up until next month, but i think it'll be worth the wait -- much like how i hope this chapter was!
> 
> come say hi on [twitter](https://twitter.com/zeromiles5) or [cc](https://curiouscat.me/zeromiles5) or comment here! i love hearing from you all so much! ♡


	3. bring on disaster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello!! sorry for the wait! i would say "now back to our regularly scheduled fluff" but um. maybe not...?

**April**

“Do you have a secret boyfriend or something?” Jaemin asks, startling Doyoung so badly that he nearly drops his phone. He hadn’t even heard the kid come into the kitchen; Jungwoo, standing at the sink, sucks in a sharp breath and actually does drop the measuring cup in his hand back into the sink with a impressively large splash, so Doyoung figures he hadn’t heard Jaemin come in either.

“What the hell gives you that impression?” Doyoung demands.

Jaemin raises an eyebrow. “You’re literally always on your phone lately,” he says, shifting his gaze downwards towards Doyoung’s hands.

“You’re full of shit,” Doyoung answers, even though everyone in this room is well aware that Jaemin’s telling the truth.

The day after Doyoung had told Ten to send his student over, he’d gotten another text from him. _I know we’re not friends and that we don’t even really know each other, but I need to vent. Kun doesn’t like it when I talk shit about people constantly and Johnny’s too nice_ , it had said, and Doyoung didn’t have to know Ten to see the implied question loud and clear – can I vent to you?

 _I’m always down for talking shit about people who deserve it_ Doyoung had answered, the man who had left Jeno – Jeno, of all people! – on the verge of tears that day. Sure, the man had been all but thrown out on his ass by one very pissed off Yuta Nakamoto, but the anger over the whole thing was still burning under Doyoung’s skin. Had the incident not been fresh on his mind, he might have gone back to ignoring Ten, but not after that. Not when he had been pretty sure that he’d found an audience for the venting he himself had wanted to do that day.

But it’s been a week and a half since then, and he and Ten are almost _friends_ now. Almost friends who text constantly. After three days, they’d both dropped the pretenses of having something to complain about in favor of actually talking to one another, and Doyoung had been surprised by how similar he and Ten are.

“You’ve literally been more attached to your phone this week than Jeno is whenever Hyuck’s not around, but okay,” Jaemin says derisively.

“Watch it,” Jungwoo says before Doyoung can, more sharply than he’s used to hearing from him. “He’s still your boss.”

Jaemin turns red and drops his gaze to the floor. “Sorry, Doyoung,” he mutters.

“It’s fine,” Doyoung answers, locking his phone and sliding it into his back pocket. “Did you need something?”

“There’s a tall kid here who says that he was told to come talk to Taeil,” Jaemin says, his face lighting up. “Are we going to hire him? He’s so cute!”

That has to be Ten’s student, then. “I’ll go talk to him. You can stay back here and help Jungwoo with cleanup,” he tells Jaemin sternly, shaking his head when Jaemin opens his mouth to protest. “Stay,” he repeats.

Jaemin’s shoulders slump, but he makes no move to follow Doyoung out of the kitchen.

Much like Jaemin had said there was, there’s a tall dark haired kid standing next to the display case, fidgeting with the sleeves of his hoodie. He’s lanky, like he has a lot of growing left to do, and his eyes keep darting around the bakery like he has no idea what to focus on. His eyes catch on Doyoung, and he visibly swallows.

“Taeil?” he asks, voice shaky.

Doyoung smiles reassuringly at him. Jaemin also hadn’t been lying when he’d said the kid was cute; his hair’s sticking up every which way in the back, and Doyoung has to tamp down on the urge to lean over the counter to fix it for him.

“No, I’m not Taeil,” he says gently. “He’s not scheduled to be here for another half an hour, but I’ll go ahead and have him come in now so you guys can talk.”

The kid shakes his head rapidly, eyes going wide. “No, no, don’t,” he protests. “I don’t want to be a bother.”

The only thing that keeps Doyoung from laughing is that he knows, in his bones, that the kid would absolutely take it to heart. “He lives upstairs           and is probably on his way down by now anyways,” he reassures him. “And you probably don’t want to wait around all day, either. Do you want a bottle of water while I wait? On the house?” he adds, so there’s no confusion.

The kid visibly hesitates. “Sure,” he says eventually. “I’ll go sit down and wait, I guess?”

“Definitely,” Doyoung answers. “I’ll be right back.”

Jungwoo takes one look at Doyoung when he gets back to the kitchen and sighs. “You can’t adopt a kid we haven’t even hired yet, Doie,” he says, sounding exasperated.

“Too late,” Doyoung fires back, already pulling his phone back out of his pocket to text Taeil to get his ass downstairs already. He doesn’t bother waiting for a reply before he grabs a bottle of water out of the fridge; knowing Taeil, he wouldn’t bother replying before coming down anyways.

“I told you he was cute,” Jaemin says sulkily. “Am I still banished to the kitchen?”

“Yes,” Doyoung says immediately. “He’s freaked out, and you’re a lot to deal with.”

Jaemin’s sulk turns into a full on pout as he turns to Jungwoo and says, “Woo, am I a lot to deal with?”

“Yes,” Jungwoo says flatly, not even looking up from the sink. “You absolutely are.”

Jaemin looks just as taken aback as Doyoung feels, but he doesn’t have time to try and figure out what’s crawled up Jungwoo’s ass and died. Not when he’s pretty sure the kid waiting in the front of the bakery will bolt if he’s left alone too long. “I’ll be back shortly,” he says, resolving to check in with Jungwoo later.

When Doyoung reenters the front of the bakery, however, he finds Taeil already sitting down at the table closest to the register talking to the kid. He looks ten times more relaxed than he had minutes ago, but that’s no surprise. Taeil tends to have a calming effect on people, thank god; they need it here at Crumbles almost on a daily basis.

Taeil looks up at Doyoung and smiles when Doyoung places the bottle of water in front of the kid. “Jisung here was just telling me about his dancing,” he says, which explains how he got Jisung to relax so quickly. “Did you banish Jaemin to the kitchen?”

“Yep.”

Taeil nods sagely. “Alright. That’s probably for the best,” he admits. “Go ahead and sit in with us, you can keep an eye on the register from here if someone needs help.”

Much of the basic information Taeil coaxes from Jisung is stuff Doyoung already knew – he’s almost seventeen, he dances, he’s hoping to get a scholarship for dance and his coach thinks he should have no problem doing so, and he’s looking for a part time job to help his parents out with expenses related to his dance competitions. He’s reserved, but in the way that Jeno was when Donghyuck first dragged him in and all but forced Taeil and Yuta to hire him – the kind of reserved that means that he’s just waiting for someone to help him break out of his shell.

At one point, Doyoung has to leave the table to go help a group of customers who leave with nearly six dozen cookies combined. When he comes back, Taeil has his serious face on. “Did I miss something?” he asks warily.

“We’re just trying to figure out when Jisung here should start,” Taeil answers, and the shy smile that blooms on Jisung’s face is a sight to behold. “What are your thoughts? I was thinking either next Monday or Tuesday night.”

“Tuesday,” Doyoung answers immediately. Yuta and Renjun are closing Monday night, and he has a gut feeling that the two of them combined might be too intimidating for Jisung to deal with on his first night. Jungwoo and Donghyuck on Tuesday night, on the other hand, are both bubbly enough that Jisung should hopefully be able to relax a little.

A look of understanding forms on Taeil’s face. “Good point,” he says, turning back to Jisung. “Does Thursday work for you?” Jisung nods rapidly, a slight blush forming on his cheeks. “Good. Be here as close to 4:30 as you can manage, and jeans and any nice shirt are fine.”

“Nice meaning _clean_ and _doesn’t have holes in it_ ,” Doyoung adds, gesturing towards the long sleeved shirt he’s wearing today. He’d hate for the kid to show up in a button down and feel awkward on his first day.

“Yes, what he said,” Taeil agrees. “One more thing,” he continues, pausing long enough that Doyoung knows that he’s messing with the kid a tiny bit; it’s only when Jisung’s eyes go so wide that they must hurt that Taeil grins. “Would you like some cookies to take home with you?”

Apparently Doyoung isn’t the only one who’s already decided to adopt Jisung. It’s early, but Doyoung’s already pretty certain that he’ll fit in just fine around here.

 

***

 

**Ten**

Thank you. Again. Seriously.

He thinks you’re great, btw

 

Doyoung doesn’t have to ask who _he_ is.

 

**Doyoung**

He seems like a good kid. Handled Jaemin being Jaemin and  
Taeil teasing him a little bit just fine.

Kinda quiet, but I’m sure he’ll break out of his shell soon.

 

**Ten**

hahahahaha quiet, okay

Just wait until you meet Chenle

 

**Doyoung**

What’s that supposed to mean? Who’s Chenle?

Ten?

Get back here and answer me, Ten

 

**Ten**

Oh, how the tables have turned

 

**Doyoung**

Oh, fuck off.

 

**Ten**

;)

 

***

 

Doyoung figures out who _Chenle_ is a week later on Jisung’s third day, when he gets back from his lunch break and sees a small blond kid camped out at one of the front tables, homework spread out across the table and his feet propped up on a second chair like he owns the place. A mug he could have only gotten from Mrs. Kim next door sits in front of him, and Doyoung idly wonders how on earth this kid charmed her into letting him take it out of her shop; she doesn’t even let Taeil bring the mugs she uses for paying customers out of her building, and Doyoung’s pretty sure that if she was twenty years younger she’d be willing to throw down against Johnny for him.

Taeil’s in the back office, typing frantically on his laptop, when Doyoung sticks his head in. “This a bad time?” he asks hesitantly.

Taeil slams his laptop closed with more force than Doyoung’s ever seen from him for, well, anything. “No. This is a good time, actually, you might have just saved me from destroying our relationship with one of our suppliers,” he adds, scowling. “What’s up?”

“I should be asking you that,” Doyoung says, and shakes his head when Taeil’s expression shifts into an icy glare. “Just kidding! Uh, who’s the kid?”

“Jisung,” Taeil says slowly.

Doyoung makes a dismissive noise. “No shit, Taeil,” he says flatly, barely restraining himself from rolling his eyes. “I meant the other kid? The one at the table?”

“Oh,” Taeil says, understanding dawning on his face. “That’s Chenle. He’s Jisung’s best friend and his ride home today, so I guess that means he has to hang out here until Jisung’s shift is over,” he says, rolling his eyes. Doyoung knows that Taeil’s trying to act like he’s annoyed, but really isn’t. At all.

“That’s sweet of him, no?” Doyoung asks, sitting on the edge of the desk just because he knows it’ll drive Taeil crazy. Sure enough, Taeil’s left eye visibly twitches, and Doyoung smirks. “Something wrong?”

“Just for that, I’m not going to say anything,” Taeil says primly, turning his body back towards his laptop. “Hey, how do I tell someone to go fuck themselves and to hold up their end of our agreement without them ending our contract?”

Doyoung hums. “How important is it that we keep this contract, though?”

“It’s the supplier for our boxes and wax paper,” Taeil tells him. “Not the end of the world, but it would be a mild inconvenience to find a new supplier in time so that we don’t run out of our backstock. But then again, they haven’t sent us a full shipment in three weeks now, so we might run out soon anyways.”

“This definitely calls for you copying the supervisor of the person you’ve been emailing back and forth with,” Doyoung says. It’s polite, but it should still get the point across. Hopefully. “Throw in a _per my last email_ or two too. Also, go home.”

Taeil glances up at the clock. “I can stay a little longer,” he protests.

Doyoung shakes his head. “You’ve been here since four thirty this morning since it was delivery day, and it’s already almost five now. Send your email, but after that I’ll carry you upstairs if I have to.”

“I’d like to see you try,” Taeil laughs.

“I’ll go get Johnny and get him to carry you upstairs,” Doyoung threatens. He knows Johnny would, too – it’s happened before, back around Halloween.

Taeil deflates. “Fine. I will send this email and then I will go home,” he sighs. “But call me if you need me!”

“Of course,” Doyoung promises, lying through his fucking teeth. He can’t imagine a situation where he would need someone else to help out, considering that he’s got both Jisung and Jeno here tonight and Crumbles is only open for another three and a half hours, but if he _did_ , he’d call Jungwoo anyway. Besides, it’s Wednesday. They’re much busier than they used to be, but Wednesday nights are still usually pretty damn slow. “You have ten minutes,” he adds, hopping off the desk and backing out of the office.

After Taeil leaves (twenty minutes after Doyoung had told him to go home instead of ten, but whatever), the night is as quiet as Doyoung had predicted. Or, it would have been, if Chenle hadn’t turned out to be the loudest kid Doyoung’s encountered in quite some time, which is really saying something considering who Crumbles’ employees are. He’s pretty sure he knows now what Taeil had decided not to tell him earlier, he thinks as Jisung leaves with Chenle in tow at a quarter to eight.

Next to him, Jeno breathes out a sigh of relief.

“I know,” Doyoung agrees.

“But Jaemin is going to love them both,” Jeno sighs. “We’ll never know peace and quiet around here ever again.”

“Okay, but when was the last time there was peace and quiet around here though?” Doyoung asks, bumping his arm against Jeno’s.

“I guess you’re right,” Jeno agrees, smiling sheepishly. Probably because his boyfriend is the source of a good chunk of the noise, Doyoung’s pretty sure.

“You can head out too,” Doyoung tells him. “The display case is pretty much empty and you and Jisung did the dishes earlier, so I’m fine on my own.”

Jeno gives him a skeptical look. “Are you sure?”

“Go home, kid,” Doyoung answers. “I’ll be out of here by eight thirty. Promise.” Jeno nods, but he doesn’t move. Instead, he casts a glance towards the display case, and Doyoung sighs. “Yes, you can take the rest of the cocoa cookies for Hyuck.”

Jeno’s eyes light up and he claps a little in excitement. “You’re the best.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Doyoung grumbles, but he thinks Jeno knows he’s touched anyways.

Closing up the shop takes less time than the half an hour Doyoung had predicted, since Wednesday isn’t a night where the closer has to do prep work for the next morning thankfully. It’s only 8:20 when he leaves, but the sky is dark and the street is almost deserted, save for the two cars parked across the street in front of Johnny’s shop, his own car parked in front of Crumbles, and the person leaning against the side of his car, their face obscured by shadows.

Wait.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he shouts.

“Waiting for you,” a vaguely familiar voice replies, sounding bemused. The figure moves forward, and Kun steps out of the shadows and into the direct light of the streetlight above them. “Hi.”

Doyoung doesn’t move from his spot on Crumbles’ front steps. “Are you stalking me?” he demands.

“What?” Kun asks, looking genuinely surprised. “Why do you think that?”

“You’re here, aren’t you?”

“Ah,” Kun nods. “Taeil stopped by to bring me and Johnny something to eat since we’re stuck here super late tonight, and he told Johnny about your threat. So that’s how I knew you were closing tonight. I’m not stalking you, I promise.”

That _does_ sound like something Taeil would do, so Kun’s probably telling the truth. Doyoung takes a cautious step forward. “But you were waiting for me,” he says. It’s not a question, but he feels the need to voice it anyways.

“Well. Yes,” Kun admits. “I have something to ask you.”

Because that doesn’t sound foreboding at all, Doyoung thinks. “What is it?”

“Ten would like you to come over for dinner at our place on Sunday, if you’re not busy,” Kun says. “He’s been trying to ask you for a week now but keeps chickening out. So I saw the opportunity and took it.”

 _Yes_ nearly falls out of Doyoung’s mouth before he even has a chance to think about it, and it scares him a little. “That doesn’t sound like Ten,” he says instead, trying to stall and give himself time to actually think the invitation over.

Kun raises an eyebrow. “Guess you don’t know him as well as you think,” he says. “Are you coming to dinner or not?”

Fuck it. “I’ll come. Text me your address before Sunday.”

“Excellent,” Kun says, lips curving into a smile that feels more inviting than it really should. “Ten will be thrilled. He feels like he owes you one.”

Doyoung shifts from foot to foot. “It was no big deal,” he protests. “We needed help anyways.”

“Of course,” Kun agrees. “And it was just a coincidence that you needed help a couple of days after you guys talked, I’m sure.”

Doyoung’s hackles raise. “Listen,” he says hotly, “are you trying to get me to unaccept your invitation to dinner? Because I’m about to unaccept your invitation.”

Kun raises his hands in defeat. “Fine,” he huffs. “I have to go back to work, Doyoung. Have a nice night. I’m already looking forward to Sunday,” he adds, smiling that inviting smile again before turning and running across the street.

Doyoung watches him go, not entirely sure how he feels about what just happened.

 

***

 

Doyoung doesn’t know why he feels so goddamn _anxious_ as he parks his car in the spacious lot next to the apartment building Ten had sent him directions to. It’s just dinner with a friend and a sort of acquaintance, right? Sort of friend? He doesn’t even know what to think of Kun anymore, god. He’s learned a lot about him just from texting Ten over the past few weeks, even if he does still refuse to text Kun himself just for the principle of it now.

 _But it’s not just dinner_ , the little voice in the back of Doyoung’s head pipes in. And Doyoung knows it’s not. If it wasn’t, he wouldn’t have worn a button-down shirt and a pair of jeans without holes in them, and he definitely wouldn’t have spent the better part of an hour in the liquor store closest to his own apartment earlier debating over their wine selection. It feels like more, in ways he doesn’t know how to define, and that terrifies him.

Call him petty, but he hates Kun a little bit for how calm and collected he looks when he opens the door. The man is wearing an apron and has a streak of some kind of red cause across his cheekbone, but he looks as unruffled as someone who’s spent their day laying on a beach somewhere with a drink in hand. “Doyoung,” he says warmly. “We’re so glad you made it.”

“I said I would be here, didn’t I?” Doyoung mutters, pressing the bottle of red wine the endlessly patient salesperson had assured him would be a wonderful hostess gift (it says something about how nervous he’s been for days now that he didn’t correct her, really). If he almost backed out three different times, Kun and Ten never have to know.

Kun flips the bottle over to examine the label and makes a noise of delight. “This is what we were planning on serving with dinner. Excellent choice,” he praises, ushering Doyoung inside. His words leave a funny feeling in the pit of Doyoung’s stomach, one that he’s going to ignore right now.

“You made it!” Ten exclaims, bouncing up off the couch in the surprisingly spacious living room. “Thank god, Kun Kun banned me from the kitchen today and I’ve been going crazy with boredom. He wants everything to be perfect,” he adds in a conspiratorial whisper, taking Doyoung by the hand and leading him over to the couch.

“It’s just me, it’s not a big deal,” Doyoung protests as Kun makes an exasperated noise.

Ten hums. “We disagree,” he says casually, and that funny feeling is back. “Sit down, I think the food will be ready in like half an hour or so? I was watching a movie, but we can put something else on if you’d like. Or turn it off completely. I’m okay with whatever.”

He’s babbling, Doyoung realizes. He’s not the only nervous one here. Somehow, that thought settles him. “Whatever you’re watching is fine,” he shrugs, sitting on the side of the couch closest to the window. Ten sits down on the opposite side and unpauses the movie without asking Doyoung if he’s sure, which he appreciates it.

Ten’s prediction of half an hour turns out to be spot on, and he’s mildly surprised when he’s led into a small dining room. “Most apartments don’t have dining rooms,” he comments, thinking of all of the apartments he’s been in over the years. Not even Taeil’s apartment, above Crumbles, has a separate dining room, and he knows that Taeil had had a hand in the layout of it.

“Nope. It was honestly a selling point for us,” Kun tells him, pouring three glasses of wine. “Well, for me, Ten couldn’t care less,” he amends.

“All I cared about was that we had a bathtub,” Ten agrees, sitting down. “But enough about the apartment. Feed me,” he demands, looking up at Kun with what Doyoung assumes is a playful glare.

“Yes, your majesty,” Kun responds, so fond it kind of hurts and leaving Doyoung feeling just as left out as he’d assumed he would be all along.

The lasagna Kun brings out is delicious, though, and the plate of pasta and sauce and cheese that’s placed in front of him goes a long way towards making Doyoung feel more comfortable. As does the two glasses of wine he drinks during dinner; he’s not the only one, though. The three of them manage to polish off the entire bottle before Kun clears their plates to get whatever he made for dessert.

“Do you want to eat dessert in the living room?” Kun calls out.

“Yes,” Ten replies immediately, taking the decision out of Doyoung’s hands. “Do we have more wine?”

“I brought some with me, but I’m not sure if it’s cold yet,” Doyoung tells him, following Ten back into the living room. He sits down on the same cushion he had been sitting on before while Ten makes a detour back into the kitchen, likely to fetch more wine.

Sure enough, Ten returns with the three wine glasses in one hand and what Doyoung thinks is the bottle he’d handed to Kun an hour ago, and sits down right next to him on the couch. They’re so close that if Doyoung shifted just a little to the right, their thighs would touch.

“Kun put it in the freezer while he was finishing the lasagna, it’s nice and cold now,” Ten informs him, setting the bottle down carefully in front of them on the coffee table. It’s only then that Doyoung notices it’s already been opened. Ten grins a little, clearly noticing what Doyoung’s looking at. “More for you, too?”

“Yes please,” Doyoung says too quickly. If Ten notices, he doesn’t comment, too focused on refilling the three glasses in front of him. Kun enters the room as Ten places the bottle back down, balancing three small plates in his hands.

It’s cake, which isn’t a surprise. What _is_ a surprise is how dark it is. “Did you add black food coloring to this?” Doyoung asks dubiously after Kun hands him a plate.

Kun laughs. “Nah,” he says, taking a seat in the armchair next to the couch. “Espresso powder. Try it,” he encourages.

Doyoung still feels hesitant, but with the way that Kun and Ten are both looking at him, he feels like refusing to take a bite would be rude as fuck. He gingerly cuts a small piece off with a fork and raises it to his mouth and is completely caught off guard by how amazing it is. – so caught off guard, in fact, that he moans around the fork before he can stop himself. He grips the fork so hard his knuckles turn white in embarrassment and has an apology on the tip of tongue, but the look on Ten’s face when he turns to him takes his breath away.

“Why are you looking at me like what?” he whispers.

“Like what?” Ten whispers back.

“Like you want to kiss me.” Devour me is more accurate, really, but it doesn’t seem right to say.

“Because I want to kiss you.”

Doyoung’s mouth falls open. “You can’t just say things like that when your boyfriend is sitting three feet away from us,” he protests.

Ten chuckles lowly. “I can if my boyfriend wants to kiss you too.”

“O-oh,” Doyoung gasps. It’s not the most surprising thing he’s ever heard, not with the way Kun’s acted towards him, but it’s still a shock to hear it so bluntly. A quick glance at Kun confirms Ten’s words, so Doyoung screws up his courage. “Then why don’t you?” he asks, putting his plate and fork down.

That’s the only invitation Ten needs to move so that he’s straddling Doyoung’s thighs, looking down at him with heat in his eyes. “Don’t mind if I do,” he murmurs, and tilts his head down to capture Doyoung’s lips with his, winding one of his arms behind Doyoung’s shoulders and grasping the hair on the back of his head just this side of too tightly. Doyoung closes his eyes and melts into it, feeling the tension that had been building up inside of him for god only knows how long fade away.

Ten, unsurprisingly, is a demanding kisser. He nips at Doyoung’s bottom lip once, twice, until Doyoung’s mouth opens enough for him to sweep his tongue inside. Doyoung grips Ten’s waist and tries to pull him closer as Ten slips his free hand up the back of Doyoung’s shirt.

Someone in the room exhales shakily. It might be Kun. It might be Doyoung himself. He doesn’t know, and he doesn’t care. Not when Ten is all but fucking his mouth with his tongue and he feels like he’s burning up from the inside out.

“You’re so hot, fuck,” Ten says, sounding almost reverent, as his lips leave Doyoung’s in order to trail a series of nips and kisses across his jaw and down his neck. Doyoung whines and tilts his head back against the couch to give him easier access. “Wanted this since the first time I saw you,” he adds, as the couch shifts and another hand grasps Doyoung’s thigh, right above where Ten’s still straddling him.

“Keep going,” Kun says, digging his fingers into the inseam of Doyoung’s jeans. Doyoung squirms and releases his grip on Ten’s hips to grab Kun by the shirt and pull him closer, too. “Be patient,” Kun tells him, voice deeper than Doyoung’s ever heard it before.

“Holy shit,” an unfortunately all too familiar voice gasps. It would be almost comical how quickly they spring apart like they’ve been caught doing something wrong (and honestly, they have been, this Doyoung knows) and turn to stare at Johnny, if it wasn’t for the ice that’s suddenly running through Doyoung’s veins.

“What the fuck, Johnny, I’ve told you so many times that having a spare key doesn’t mean you can waltz on in whenever you’d like,” Ten says angrily.

Johnny seems to be at a loss for words. “I forgot,” he manages after a moment. “Sorry?” he adds weakly.

“I should go,” Doyoung says, standing up.

“Wait,” Kun protests, reaching towards him, but Doyoung shakes his head.

“I can’t stay.” Not when it feels like the walls are closing in around him like this. What the fuck did he just _do_?

“Let him go,” Ten says quietly.

Luckily, Doyoung’s phone and keys are both in his pocket and he hadn’t brought anything besides the bottle of wine, so he’s able to make a quick escape. Not quick enough, though, as he hears Ten tell Johnny that he’d better not tell anyone, not even Taeil, about what he’d just seen, or else there would be hell to pay.

It makes sense that they wouldn’t want anyone to know about this, Doyoung thinks bitterly as he unlocks his car. It really, really fucking just does. This time, though, he has no one to blame for the sinking feeling in his gut and the utter shame that he feels besides himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i promise ch 4 will not take almost a month, since i am now done with exams (thank GOD) and travelling for the time being. please tell me your thoughts on this chapter, i'm very curious to see your reactions! come say hi on twitter and [cc](https://curiouscat.me/zeromiles5)!


	4. change in pressure

**May**

Yuta leaving for Japan is a blessing disguised as a curse.

It’s a curse because his delaying his trip to the first of May means that he’s gone during the two weeks that the kids can barely work because they’re either studying for exams, or taking exams, leaving them almost hysterically short-staffed. Taeyong ends up helping them out twice, despite Johnny’s shop being almost as busy, just so that Jungwoo and Taeil can each have a day off during Yuta’s absence.

It’s a blessing because working ten days straight does wonders for keeping Doyoung’s mind off what happened with Ten and Kun last week. What didn’t happen. Both, if he’s being honest with himself. Taeil and Taeyong had both tried convincing him that he needed a day off too, but he’d refused. If anything, he’s a tiny bit disappointed that two of the kids are already back to working normal hours due to their exams ending early and that Yuta will be back next week. Spending less time at Crumbles again will probably just mean he spends more time sitting alone in his apartment wondering where, exactly, everything went wrong.

“Hello? Earth to Doyoung,” Renjun says, waving his hand in front of Doyoung’s face.

Doyoung blinks. “What?” he asks.

“Dude, you zoned out for a solid five minutes,” Renjun says. “And there’s an old lady sitting at the front of the store just staring us down, but I don’t wanna go talk to her. She looks mean.”

“If she really needs something, I’m sure she’ll come up to the register,” Doyoung says, tilting his head to try and see what woman Renjun is talking about. Their normal lunch rush has passed, but almost every table is still occupied. Eventually, he spots Mrs. Kim from next door sitting at the front of Crumbles and sucks in a sharp breath.

Renjun snickers. “I told you she looks mean.”

“She’s not mean at all, but I better go talk to her,” Doyoung sighs. “Go get Taeil if you need something before I’m done. He went on his break more than half an hour ago, it’s fine.”

Mrs. Kim has a huge folder in front of her, which is weird. “Dongyoung,” she says, smiling up at him when he approaches. “Are Taeil and Yuta busy today? I need to talk to them.”

“Yuta’s in Japan until next week, actually,” Doyoung replies, genuinely apologetic. “But they’ll both be in next Monday.”

Mrs. Kim’s gaze sharpens, and he suddenly sees what Renjun meant about her looking mean. “So Taeil is not busy, then? Go get him,” she demands when Doyoung shakes his head.

The problem with that is that Taeil’s lunch break had just so happened to start thirty seconds after Johnny walked through the front door, and Doyoung’s been doing a damn good job of avoiding him for the last week and a half. He could send Renjun to get Taeil, but Jungwoo’s testing recipes in the kitchen again and he knows that Renjun will get distracted by it, like he always does, and forget all about why he was sent to the back of the shop in the first place.

Doyoung grits his teeth as he sidesteps Jungwoo, who’s singing along quietly to some bright, bubbly love song he can’t recall the name of even though Jungwoo plays it all the fucking time, and hopes to god that maybe today is his lucky day and Johnny left through the back door like he sometimes does as he pushes open the door to the office.

Unfortunately, today is clearly _not_ his day. Not only is Johnny still here, but he’s standing between Taeil’s legs, his hands spread wide on his waist, kissing him like they’ve been apart for years instead of hours. He considers backing out of the office quietly and just telling Mrs. Kim that Taeil is in the middle of a very important phone call (yeah, it would be a lie, but he’s a pretty good liar if he does say so himself), but then Taeil makes a sound that Doyoung never wanted to hear and slides a hand up Johnny’s side to rest over one of his pecs, and Doyoung is _done_. The literal only saving grace right now is that he can’t actually see Taeil’s face right now, so he doesn’t know what facial expression accompanied a noise like that.

“Oh, goddamn it, not again,” Doyoung groans. “Taeil, _please_ ,” he adds. It’s not the first time he’s stumbled upon the two of them all over each other, but it is the first time that he’s been potentially scarred for life by them.

There’s a pause before Taeil pulls back from Johnny so Doyoung can see him clearly. “You’re just jealous, Doie,” he says, tilting his head up so that he’s now looking Doyoung in the eyes, and it feels like a slap in the face.

“He shouldn’t be, not based on what I walked in on at Ten’s apartment last week,” Johnny laughs, and if Taeil’s remark had felt like a slap in the face, then Johnny’s feels like a kick to the stomach. A shocked gasp tumbles out of his mouth before he can stop himself, one that Taeil echoes.

“You didn’t tell me anything about that,” Taeil rushes out.

“Don’t you fucking dare, Seo,” Doyoung snaps. There’s a reason he hasn’t told Taeil or anyone about what happened last week. It’s bad enough that Johnny probably pities him. He doesn’t need everyone he considers important pitying him too.

Johnny sighs the fakest sigh Doyoung’s ever heard in his entire life. “Sorry babe, I promised Ten I wouldn’t say anything. And Kun. I promised Kun too,” he says, the side of his face twitching in a way that Doyoung’s sure means he just winked at Taeil. Which probably means he’ll tell Taeil later anyways, who will tell Yuta, and then everyone will know and the last week and a half of trying to act like everything’s okay will be for nothing.

Just the thought of it makes him feel sick to his stomach.

“That’s as good as telling him, Johnny!” he shrieks, wincing at how high his voice goes. “Why don’t you learn how to knock?”

Johnny takes a step back from Taeil, and Doyoung realizes for the first time that Taeil’s sitting on the desk. Hypocrite. “I could say the same to you, actually. Because I definitely closed the door to Taeil’s office,” he says casually.

“It’s just as much my office or Yuta’s office as it is Taeil’s office,” Doyoung retorts, giving Johnny a dirty look.

“Doyoung,” Taeil thankfully interjects, saving Doyoung from letting his emotions spill out in a messy flood right then and there, “did you have a reason for coming to find me? I told Renjun I was going on my lunch break when Johnny got here, and that was like twenty minutes ago.”

The reminder of Mrs. Kim sitting out in the main part of Crumbles is enough for Doyoung to pull himself back under control. “Um, actually, it was more life forty-five minutes ago. But yeah, I did. Mrs. Kim is here, she wants to talk to you and Yuta.”

Taeil gives Doyoung an incredulous look, one that gets under his skin even though it normally wouldn’t. “Did you tell her that Yuta went to Japan to visit his family like he did every spring? And that he won’t be back until Monday?”

“Of course not, Taeil, I definitely did not tell her those two obvious things,” Doyoung answers, much more sarcastically than the question deserves even to his own ears. “She told me to get my ass back here and get you anyways.”

“Is this that demanding lady who always wants a ton of custom cookies made by you and only you?” Johnny asks Taeil, sounding confused.

Taeil sighs and slides off the desk, and that’s Doyoung’s cue to leave. At this point, either Taeil will go talk to Mrs. Kim or he won’t, but it’s no longer on him. Jungwoo’s still singing whenever Doyoung passes back through the kitchen, but the song’s switched to something a bit more mellow. He freezes with a spatula in hand whenever he spots Doyoung, though.

“What?” Doyoung asks.

“Nothing,” Jungwoo answers in a tone of voice that clearly means anything but. “You should probably go back out there, I think I heard Renjun shouting at someone,” he adds, turning back to the bowls spread out in front of him.

Doyoung curses under his breath and all but sprints back to the front of the shop. He nearly stumbles over his own two feet when he sees Donghyuck standing next to the counter with a shit eating grin on his face, which answers any question about who Renjun might have been yelling at.

“Thank god you’re back,” Renjun says exasperatedly. “Tell Hyuck to go away.”

“Never,” Doyoung murmurs, and Donghyuck beams in response. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Taeil stride purposely to the front where Mrs. Kim is waiting, and wonders what in the hell could be so important that she can’t wait a week for Yuta to come back to talk to him.

 

***

 

Doyoung shifts from foot to foot as he waits for Taeil to open his door. He’d gotten a text from Yuta about an hour ago, asking him to come upstairs whenever he finished closing Crumbles tonight without any further explanation. He suspects that Yuta just wants to show him baby pictures, which is fine. Welcomed, really, because he loves babies and everyone knows it, but if they try to rope him into movie night again he’s leaving. Seeing the two of them cry all over each other because whatever movie they chose made them emotional got old the third time it happened, and he’s seen it happen probably a hundred times by now.

“Sora, move,” he hears Taeil say, muffled by the door between them. She’s likely laying on the doormat again, because cats are weird. Sure enough, the door opens after a series of shuffling sounds, and the deadly serious look on Taeil’s face is unexpected.

“Am I being fired or something?” Doyoung asks warily, toeing off his shoes after moving out of the doorway.

Yuta springs up from the couch. “Why do you think that?” he demands. “I already told you you’re never allowed to leave us. Ever. Even if I have to drag you back to Crumbles kicking and screaming.”

“That’s kidnapping, which is illegal,” Taeil points out, his expression easing a bit.

“Taeil’s face was kind of scary,” Doyoung answers, sitting on the couch next to Yuta.

“Taeilie has a lot on his mind, don’t worry about him,” Yuta soothes, shifting so that he can lean against Doyoung’s side. “I missed you while I was gone, Doie,” he adds, wrapping his arms around Doyoung’s waist.

Doyoung exhales heavily, relaxing into Yuta’s hold. “I missed you too,” he responds, and it’s true enough that he doesn’t have to feel guilty about telling a lie.

“Cute,” Taeil says, sitting on Doyoung’s other side so that he’s sandwiched between the two of them. All in all, it’s not a bad place to be. His traitorous brain tries to remind him of the last time he sat on someone else’s couch with two other people, but he squashes the thought down immediately. Taeil’s living room is not the time or place.

“If you’re trying to trick me into staying for movie night, it’s not going to work,” Doyoung warns.

Yuta huffs out a laugh against Doyoung’s shoulder, his breath ticking Doyoung’s ear. “We’re not. We actually have business stuff to talk about.”

“Really? Like what?” Doyoung asks.

“Mrs. Kim wants to sell us her building so we can expand,” Taeil blurts out.

Doyoung hums contemplatively. “We can probably afford it,” he offers after a moment.

“No, we can definitely afford it. She could get at least double what she told me she wants for it if she listed it for sale publicly,” Taeil says. “She’s practically trying to give it to us.”

“Then I don’t see what the issue is,” Doyoung shrugs as best as he can with Yuta still clinging to him. “We’re more than ready to expand. A bigger kitchen would be wonderful, as would having the room for more tables and a bigger display case. We could even start selling drinks like the kids keep whining about.”

Yuta and Taeil exchange a look over Doyoung’s head. If they think they’re being sly, they missed the mark by a mile. “That’s not the only thing,” Yuta says slowly. “Taeil mentioned it to Johnny, and he suggested that we merge Crumbles with Tiers of Joy,” he continues, and Doyoung chokes.

“Really?” Doyoung coughs.

Taeil nods, face turning red. “Yeah. He said it as a joke, but I’m almost positive he was being serious. I haven’t brought it back up to him, though. I had to talk to Yuta, obviously, but we also wanted to make sure you would be okay with it if we did.”

“Why wouldn’t I be okay with it?” Doyoung asks, cringing at how his voice squeaks. Fuck. Does Taeil know what happened? Does _Yuta_?

“I mean, I don’t know exactly what Johnny meant when he said he walked in on you with Ten and Kun since he still refuses to tell me about it, but you seemed kind of upset about it,” Taeil says softly, and Doyoung can breathe again. “If you wouldn’t be able to work with Kun a few days a week, though, I can easily pretend I believed Johnny was just making a joke and never mention it again.”

“We can still expand without them,” Yuta adds, uncharacteristically seriously. “We’re only considering it because it would likely benefit us even more than them.”

“Nothing happened. Johnny was just talking shit, you should know by now he does that sometimes,” Doyoung lies. “If you guys think a merger with them would be good for us and we can make it work, go ahead. I’m fine with it.”

Yuta pulls back from Doyoung to give him a scrutinizing look. “Are you sure?” he asks shrewdly, and _this_ is why Doyoung didn’t miss Yuta as much as he normally would have while he was in Japan. Yuta would have seen right fucking through him days ago. Weeks ago, even. At least by now enough time has passed that he’s able to put on a fairly convincing façade. He hopes.

“I’m sure,” he says firmly. “But enough about me or Crumbles. I actually thought I was coming up here to see baby pictures.”

Yuta lights up. “I have baby pictures,” he says excitedly. “I have so many baby pictures that this could take a while,” he adds, practically vibrating.

Neither of them mention the deliberate subject change, which Doyoung suspects is intentional on their part. But something deep inside him wishes they’d continued to press the issue, forced him to bare his soul, and he hates it.

 

***

 

A week after the fact, Doyoung still can’t get Johnny’s words out of his head. He had known all along that Ten had told Johnny not to talk about what had happened, and it’s not a surprise that Kun had either, really; it’s not a good look for anyone at all to see you watching your boyfriend make out with a near stranger, let alone your boss.

But them telling Johnny not to talk about it to Taeil doesn’t necessarily mean they, or at least Ten, haven’t talked about the situation with him since. Ten’s the chatty, open sort. It’s very unlikely that he’s reacted to what happened by closing himself off completely like Doyoung has. And Doyoung just wants to know. Has to know what they’re thinking, if he’ll make a fool out of himself by reaching out like he wants to more and more as the days pass.

Minus a _hope you made it home safely_ sent about an hour after Doyoung left their apartment, he hasn’t heard from either of them since. It could be them trying to give him space, but it could also be them realizing they made a mistake and deciding that they never want to talk to him ever again. He doesn’t know, and can’t bring himself to reach out without knowing.

That’s why he seeks Johnny out on one of Taeil’s days off. Kind of. (Does it count as _seeking someone out_ if it takes little to no effort on your part to do so? Doyoung’s not sure.) The stairs leading up to Taeil’s apartment are right above Crumbles’ kitchen door, and they’re loud. Especially when Johnny comes down them. It’s normally a nuisance, but this morning it means that Doyoung can throw the door open ten seconds after the noise stops and call Johnny’s name.

“How did you know it was me?” Johnny asks sheepishly, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck.

Doyoung rolls his eyes. “Taeil sleeps in on his days off, and you’re up there like five days a week.” He doesn’t know why Taeil hasn’t asked Johnny to move in with him yet, honestly, but it’s none of his business and he’s damn sure not going to pry, knowing how much he hates it when its done to him.

“True,” Johnny allows. “What’s up? Everything okay?”

“What makes you ask that?” Doyoung asks, then shakes his head. “Never mind. Listen. About what you said to Taeil last week –”

“I haven’t told him anything else besides that, I swear. Ten would kill me, and he might be tiny but he’s scary as shit,” Johnny says earnestly.

Taeil had said something similar, the other day, so Doyoung believes him. “I know. This isn’t about that. I was just…wondering if he or they have said anything else about it at all?” he asks hesitantly.

Johnny’s quiet for a long moment, and Doyoung braces himself for the worst. “Not at all, actually,” he says haltingly. “You know, Ten usually talks about everything and anything that crosses his mind, so it’s pretty unusual for him to be so quiet about something. I’ve seen it once or twice before, but that’s it.” His gaze is unusually intense, and Doyoung gets it. It hurts like fucking hell, but he gets it.

“Okay,” he says quietly. “Thanks, Johnny.”

“Have a good day!” Johnny says cheerfully, waving like a dork as Doyoung steps back inside to close the door.

Have a good day, he says. Sure. That’ll be easy and not impossible at all, Doyoung thinks sourly. Definitely.

 

***

 

Fate must have it out for Doyoung or something, because not even four hours after Doyoung’s conversation with Johnny, Ten walks in, his arm around Jisung. The cowardly thing to do would be to run, which is what Doyoung kinda wants to do, but he had opened by himself this morning. There’s literally no one else around. He can’t leave. Not when there are customers in the store. Customers who aren’t Ten, who he’s pretty sure didn’t stop by to buy something.

Sure enough, when Jisung skips to the back to clock in and grab his apron, Ten draws to a stop next to the counter. “Hi,” he says softly. It’s practically a whisper. “How have you been?”

“I’ve been better,” Doyoung admits, a little sharp.

Ten winces. “We’re really sorry about everything, Doyoung.”

It shouldn’t hurt. Not after what Johnny had said just that morning. But hearing their regret confirmed by Ten himself is just too much.

“I really don’t want to hear it.”

Ten’s face falls, which is rich. Really, really rich. “Doyoung,” he tries.

Doyoung looks pointedly at the display case. “Was there anything else I could help you with?” he asks.

“No, I guess not,” Ten says dejectedly, his shoulders slumping. “Tell Jisung I said bye and that I hope he has a good day of work.”

“Will do,” Doyoung says begrudgingly. As much as this situation fucking sucks, he’s not going to take it out on a kid who doesn’t even know there’s a crossfire for him to be stuck in the middle of.

Ten stopping by Crumbles unannounced does prove one thing to Doyoung, though. He’d made a huge mistake whenever he had told Taeil and Yuta that he could deal with working in the same place as Kun. Even if they only saw each other once or twice a week, which could theoretically be possible if they had different days off and schedules that didn’t overlap, he’s not sure he could handle it. Not when the hurt and the shame feel like they’ve lodged themselves underneath his skin like a particularly painful scar. He resolves to talk to Taeil the first chance he gets, because he knows that Taeil and Yuta had been serious when they said they wouldn’t even consider the whole merging scheme if he felt uncomfortable. They’re both loyal to a fault, and it’s only been a week. If Doyoung expresses his newfound discomfort, they’ll put an end to it.

But then Taeil comes back from the bank Friday afternoon practically _glowing_. He looks happier than he even did right after he and Johnny got their shit together and entered the honeymoon phase of their relationship, and the excitement in his voice when he tells Jungwoo about the plans would be audible to someone who had no idea what was going on.

Yuta, too, is visibly happier, although not in the radiant way that Taeil is.

“Johnny’s guy at the bank says there’s no way we can’t make the financials work,” he tells Doyoung on Saturday, pride written all over his face. “We might even be able to combine the mortgage on this building and the one we’ll have to take out on Mrs. Kim’s building into one. I’m not sure how that all works, but there’s a reason I don’t work for a bank,” he jokes, beaming.

“That’s awesome,” Doyoung replies, and wishes he meant it. He feels like an asshole, and it’s not a good feeling.

Yuta gives him one of those soul searching looks again. “Are you sure you’re okay with everything, Doie?” he asks carefully.

No. No, he’s not okay. Not with anything.

“Yes,” he lies.

As much as it hurts, he can’t crush Yuta and Taeil like that. Not whenever the dreams they’ve had for the little bakery the two of them built from the ground up suddenly have a way to become reality. And most certainly not when the chance for Taeil to go into business with the person he’s called the love of his life multiple times is there for the taking.

Yuta sighs. “I’ll take your word for it. Just remember that the absolute earliest it’s going to happen is October, but probably not even until November, okay?”

“Okay,” Doyoung echoes. It’s a fair point, because five or six months is a long time.

Doyoung just doesn’t think it’s long enough.

 

***

 

“You have so many options that I don’t even know where to start,” the man standing in front of the display case says, his voice surprisingly deep. He looks up at Doyoung, smiling a little, and his eyes seem to sparkle. “What do you recommend?”

“Well,” Doyoung flounders. He’s not usually one to be caught off guard by a pretty face, but the stranger in front of him is something else. One of his ears is pointed, like an elf’s, and he doesn’t want to take his eyes off of it. “That depends,” he manages. “Do you like chocolate? Or are you a chocolate hater? If you’re a chocolate hater, that eliminates half of the options right there.”

“There’s no such thing as a chocolate hater, though. Right?” the man asks.

Donghyuck laughs behind Doyoung, startling him. “Oh, there is,” he says cheerfully, setting a tray of sugar cookies down on the counter so he can open up the display case. “My boyfriend is one of them. It’s his one flaw, really,” he says dramatically.

“You don’t think Jeno has any flaws,” Doyoung tells him.

“You got me there,” Donghyuck grins.

“Well, I am not a chocolate hater,” the man says, sounding amused. “So what do you recommend?”

“Our hot cocoa cookies,” Donghyuck says immediately.

The man nods. “Alright. And what do _you_ recommend?” he asks, turning his head so make direct eye contact with Doyoung.

“If you like chocolate, I’d get the double stuffed Nutella cookies,” Doyoung tells him. They’re a new creation of Jungwoo’s, and they’ve been flying off the trays faster than they can make them.

“I’ll take six of those, then.”

“Are you sure? They’re cheaper by the dozen,” Doyoung asks dubiously.

The man smirks. “I’m sure. Unless you’d like to share them with me, of course.”

“I’m good,” Doyoung says before he can even think about it. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Donghyuck giving him an incredulous look as he boxes up the requested six, because he potentially just shot down a _really_ attractive guy. Two months ago he would have jumped all over the offer, but right now? There’s no way.

“That’s a shame,” the man sighs, “there’s nothing better than sharing chocolate with someone after a really vigorous workout, you know?”

“Holy fuck,” Donghyuck mutters just loud enough to hear, echoing Doyoung’s own thoughts.

“Sure,” Doyoung says, trying to keep the panic out of his voice. “You know what? These are on the house,” he adds, trying to bring this conversation to an end. He can feel his face heating up, and he’s sick and tired of feeling embarrassed lately.

“Well, with customer service like this, I’ll definitely be back,” the man says silkily, accepting the box Donghyuck all but shoves at him. “I’m Sicheng, by the way. You know, for next time,” he adds with a wink.

“What the hell just happened?” Donghyuck asks once Sicheng leaves, breaking the silence that had fallen in his wake.

Doyoung crouches so he can rest his head against the edge of the counter and sighs weakly. “Fuck if I know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello hello! as you can see, i think we have a finalized chapter count now! so we're about halfway though, but there's still a lot of story to come! we're also branching out into the unknown after this...good times ;)
> 
> lemme know what you think/if you have any theories about what's going to happen (i love hearing them!!) either in the comments, [twitter](https://twitter.com/zeromiles5), or [cc](https://curiouscat.me/zeromiles5)! until next time!
> 
> (ps. ch. 5 MIGHT be out within the week....)


	5. boy troubles (got double)

**June**

_bang bang bang!_

Doyoung nearly falls off his couch in alarm at the sound of someone pounding on his front door. He hasn’t ordered food, Yuta is working, and Taeil’s out of town for the weekend, so he can’t imagine anyone who might be on the other side that’s worth getting up for.

“Go away!” he shouts, but to no avail. If anything, the knocking gets louder.

“Open your damn door, Doyoung!” a muffled voice shouts. It sounds like…Jungwoo? But that should be impossible, because Jungwoo doesn’t know his address.

“What?” Doyoung all but snarls as he wrenches his door open. Sure enough, Jungwoo is standing on the other side, looking extremely unimpressed with a neon yellow reusable shopping bag slung over his shoulder. “How the fuck do you know my address?”

“I’m a manager too, which means I have access to employee records,” Jungwoo says primly. It’s much sneakier than Doyoung would have ever expected from Jungwoo, and he’s begrudgingly impressed.

That doesn’t mean he’s just going to give in, though. “And why should I let you in?”

Jungwoo grins, a touch evilly. “I will stand here and make a scene until you either let me in, or your neighbors call the cops,” he promises. “Plus I have tequila, but mostly because I’m willing to make a huge scene.”

His face dares Doyoung to call his bluff, which is why he sighs and steps aside to let Jungwoo in. “Are you serious about the tequila?” he asks warily.

Jungwoo turns and gives Doyoung a critical look. “Have you eaten? Do I need to order delivery or something before we open the tequila?”

“I’ve eaten dinner. I know how to take care of myself, Jungwoo,” Doyoung mutters sullenly.

“Can never be too sure,” Jungwoo retorts, nudging Doyoung to the side so he can move past him. He makes a beeline for the kitchen and sets the bag he’s carrying down on the counter with a loud thump.

Doyoung follows him, wondering how this is his life right now. “Not that I’m not thrilled for the unexpected company,” he says sarcastically, “but why are you here? With alcohol, no less?”

“You’ve been moping around Crumbles for six weeks now, Doyoung,” Jungwoo answers, pulling an intimidatingly large bottle out of the bag. “I’ve been waiting for you to either get over it or talk to someone about it, but you still won’t, so you’re forcing me to take matters into my own hands.”

“I,” Doyoung sputters. “What are you talking about?”

Jungwoo turns to face Doyoung, rolling his eyes. “Doyoung. You’ve been acting weird since the day left Yuta left for Japan. You’re more obvious than you think you are, you know? At least to me. I don’t understand how everyone else is fooled, but they are. And I’m pretty sure you still wouldn’t be so sad if you’d talked to someone, since bottling things up inside makes it worse. So I’m here to get it out of you one way or the other,” he finishes, picking up the bottle of tequila and waving it in the air.

Doyoung’s jaw drops. “Is your plan really to get me drunk enough to tell you what’s wrong? Hypothetically, of course,” he amends quickly.

“Hypothetically, okay,” Jungwoo snorts. “But yeah, unless you just want to talk to me? That would be easier for both of us,” he points out.

Doyoung snatches the bottle of tequila out of Jungwoo’s grasp. “I’m not going to talk,” he promises. “No matter how drunk I am.”

“Sure, Doyoung,” Jungwoo says, more than a little patronizingly.

Half an hour later, Doyoung realizes that he underestimated Jungwoo’s tenacity and his willingness to give them both alcohol poisoning if it meant he got his way.

“Fine, I give up,” Doyoung groans, feeling the world shift as he tries to pull himself to his feet. “No to more tequila, but yes to food,” he grits out as he manages to stand without collapsing. The wall behind his couch is a lifesaver. He’s not drunk, but he’s close; he’d definitely lost count of how many times Jungwoo had refilled his shot glass and shoved it back across the coffee table towards him.

“My offer to order Chinese food still stands,” Jungwoo says, sounding much more sober than Doyoung thinks he should.

“I want a hamburger,” Doyoung says petulantly, flopping back onto his couch and closing his eyes.

Jungwoo laughs and pulls his phone out of his pocket, swiping at the screen quickly. “Fine, I’ll order hamburgers. Is McDonald’s okay? Isn’t there one right around the corner? That’ll get here quick.”

Doyoung cracks an eye open. “Order me two hamburgers but no fries,” he demands. He’s not nearly drunk enough to willingly eat those things.

Jungwoo gives him a weird look but doesn’t argue. “Done,” he says triumphantly a few moments later. “The app says it’ll be like fifteen minutes, so you don’t have to talk to me yet, but you’re not getting out of this,” he says firmly, glancing meaningfully at the now abandoned tequila bottle.

“I know,” Doyoung gripes. “Why did I let you in again?”

“Because I blackmailed you, pretty much.”

Oh yeah. That. Doyoung can’t complain too much though, not when Jungwoo perches on the arm of the couch next to him and digs his fingers into Doyoung’s scalp. He pushes back against it with a tiny hum, and Jungwoo giggles.

“I know everyone says you’re a bunny, but I think you’re actually a tiny little kitten,” he says delightedly, but he doesn’t stop scratching Doyoung’s head until there’s a knock on the door for the second time that night. He bemoans the loss of Jungwoo’s hand, but someone has to get the food and it sure as hell isn’t him, so it’s a necessary sacrifice.

Jungwoo, to his credit, at least lets Doyoung eat half of one of the hamburgers he’d passed him before drumming his fingers on the coffee table. “So what’s crawled up your ass and died lately?” he says bluntly.

Doyoung chokes. “Jungwoo,” he hisses.

“What?” Jungwoo shrugs. “I’m just calling it like I see it, Doyoung. You can’t be mad at me for that,” he adds, his eyes going wide and giving him an aura of innocence he doesn’t fucking deserve right now.

Doyoung whines and wishes he had throw pillows all over his apartment like Yuta does so he could hide his face from Jungwoo right now. “It’s nothing. I had a bad date, I guess,” he mumbles. He’s still not sure that _date_ accurately describes that dinner and Ten and Kun’s place six weeks ago, but it’s the best word he’s got.

Jungwoo, unexpectedly, brightens. “Oh, boy problems?”

“I wouldn’t call it _boy problems_ ,” Doyoung frowns.

Jungwoo bounces in place. “Um, I totally would. One bad date wouldn’t leave you this upset for a month and a half. Therefore, boy problems! You can tell me about them, though. I can help.”

Doyoung scoffs before he can help himself. “Jungwoo. No offense, but you go clubbing at least once a week and you tell us about all the guys you shoot down constantly. I’m pretty sure you’re the last person to ask for relationship advice.”

Jungwoo falls silent for so long that Doyoung’s just starting to panic about whether or not he just offended one of the most easy-going people he’s ever met whenever Jungwoo finally answers. “What would you say if I told you that the reason I shoot down everyone who tries to pick me up these days is because I have a boyfriend?” he says cautiously.

Doyoung’s jaw drops. “What?”

“I have a boyfriend,” Jungwoo repeats, nodding to himself. “I’ve had a boyfriend for almost a year now actually. We’re actually kind of obsessed with each other,” he continues, picking up steam now. “But we had to keep it quiet at first and it would have been really weird to be all, _hey guys, guess what! Look who I’m dating!_ six months later.”

“You’re telling me now, almost a year later,” Doyoung points out, feeling a little betrayed. No, he’s not as close to Jungwoo as he is Taeil or Yuta, but they’ve been working together for almost two years now and he thought they were genuine friends at this point.

A pained expression forms on Jungwoo’s face. “Yeah, we didn’t think that one through.”

“Do I know him? I want to meet him,” Doyoung says.

Jungwoo’s previously pained expression fades away and is replaced by a smirk. “I’ll make you a deal,” he proposes.

Doyoung’s suddenly reminded of how Taeil’s told him more than once that Jungwoo’s not nearly as soft and angelic as he often seems to the outside world. “What?” he asks warily.

“You go out with me Saturday night so I can introduce you to my boyfriend. Then you tell me everything about your situation. A secret for a secret,” Jungwoo says smugly, like he knows that Doyoung’s need to know everything about the people he cares about so he can fix things if he has to means he’ll give in.

And he’s right, fuck. “I’m not going to a club, Jungwoo.”

“I’ll take you to this nice bar we like close to my place,” Jungwoo answers, smiling widely. “You’ll like it. I’ll pick you up at nine on Saturday so you can’t back out, by the way,” he adds, picking up the milkshake he’d ordered for himself and taking a large slurp.

“I wouldn’t have tried to back out,” Doyoung tries, knowing it’s a lie. Jungwoo gives him an unimpressed look, clearly not buying it either.

“Sure, Jan,” he snarks. “Oh, one more thing. I don’t know why you’re avoiding Jisung, but the kid’s convinced you hate him. Soooo. If you don’t, and I know you don’t. you should probably fix that.”

Doyoung cringes. He’d thought that by the time Jisung noticed that Doyoung was purposely scheduling their shifts so that they never overlapped, he’d have gotten over things enough to take the risk of seeing Ten again. Guess not. The kid’s clearly more perceptive than he’d ever guessed, since it’s only been about three weeks since they last saw each other.

“I’ll fix it,” he promises, offering no other information. Jungwoo clearly notices, seeing as how his eyebrows raise, but he lets it go. Likely doesn’t want to press his luck any further, Doyoung thinks. Not that it really matters; if he goes through with this stupid deal Doyoung agreed to, he’ll probably figure it out by Saturday night anyways. Jungwoo’s always been a smart cookie after all.

 

***

 

The relieved look on Jisung’s face when he shows up for his Friday night shift and sees Doyoung in the kitchen makes him feel about two inches tall. He’d been able to convince Yuta to switch with him that day, claiming he’d had an appointment that just came up that morning that meant he couldn’t open, but the guilt he feels for lying to a friend doesn’t compare to the guilt he feels for making Jisung feel bad.

“Hey, Jisungie,” he says cheerfully, crossing his fingers that it sounds genuine. “How was dance practice?”

Jisung blinks at him, then seems to shake off whatever thought he was stuck on. “Exhausting,” he settles on, “but it’s over now for the weekend. And I’m totally going to kick ass at my competition next week!” he boasts, the bravado of a kid who knows just how talented they are. “Want to see a video of my routine?”

That’s one problem fixed at least, Doyoung sighs ten minutes later when Jisung all but skips out of the kitchen. If only the rest of his problems could be solved so readily.

 

***

 

“You know, I didn’t think a bar would be so crowded,” Doyoung comments as Jungwoo expertly weaves through the sea of people, his hand wrapped tight around Doyoung’s wrist like he’s afraid of losing him. It’s not an impossibility, either; a woman had shoved right up between them at the bar when Jungwoo was ordering, eager to get the attention of one of the bartenders.

“It’s Saturday, and this is one of the more popular bars in this area,” Jungwoo answers, like he thinks it’s obvious. “We’re going to the patio, though. It’s quieter out there,” he says meaningfully.

Doyoung sighs internally. He’s accepted that he’s finally going to have to talk to someone about his _issue_ , but that doesn’t mean he has to like it.

“Are we looking for something? Or someone?”

“An empty table, we’re here first. Oh!” Jungwoo exclaims, giving his arm an especially harsh tug. “I see one! In the corner, perfect,” he chirps, pulling Doyoung forward so quickly it’s a miracle he doesn’t stumble over his own two feet. He doesn’t get the hurry, but then again, maybe he does; this place is so crowded that they probably were racing someone to claim it.

“We’re not going to have to wait all night for this man of yours, are we?” Doyoung asks worriedly, sitting down in the chair Jungwoo had indicated he should take.

“Nah,” Jungwoo replies, glancing at his phone before setting it down on the table between them. “He’s on his way here from a – from work,” he corrects himself.

Doyoung narrows his eyes. “I’m literally about to meet him. You don’t have to be shady anymore, Woo.”

“I have my reasons,” Jungwoo says mysteriously, then launches into a story about the taco joint across the street. It’s one clearly meant to keep Doyoung occupied, and between that and a waitress coming by to bring them their drinks it works. Right up until he catches sight of a familiar face in the crowd, that is.

“Hey, Woo, I think I see Jaehyun,” Doyoung interrupts. “It’s really crowded, should we wave him over to sit with us? At least until your boyfriend gets here?”

“No need,” Jungwoo says simply, leaning back in his chair.

“Are you sure?” Doyoung presses as he makes eye contact with Jaehyun. “He’s looking at me, I can flag him down.”

“I said there’s no need,” Jungwoo repeats. In the distance, Jaehyun’s face lights up and he shoves his way through the crowd, making a beeline for their table. Maybe Jaehyun’s here at the same time as Jungwoo often enough that he knows he doesn’t have to be invited to keep him company while he waits for his boyfriend? It’s the only rational explanation Doyoung’s tired mind can come up with.

Which is why he’s absolutely stunned into silence when Jaehyun places a large hand on Jungwoo’s shoulder and swoops in for a brief yet enthusiastic kiss before dropping down into the chair next to him. “Hey, baby,” Jaehyun says, a little breathlessly, “sorry I’m late. The groomsmen got in a fight, so the cops showed up and didn’t let anyone leave the premises. Not even the poor baker who got caught in the chaos,” he pouts.

Doyoung thinks he understands what Jungwoo meant by having his own reasons now. A lot of shit is suddenly making sense to him, actually.

“Sounds like an exciting night,” Jungwoo remarks, reaching out to adjust Jaehyun’s collar.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Jaehyun laughs, giving Jungwoo an adoring look.

The scene in front of him is so domestic that it kind of makes Doyoung’s teeth hurt. “So,” he says dumbly, “you two?”

Jungwoo beams. “Yeah. It was love at second sight,” he sighs happily. “At least for me. Jae swears it was love at first sight for him, though.”

“Because it was!” Jaehyun protests. “Why do you think I told you so much that day? I couldn’t control myself. I almost asked you out right then and there.”

“Oh,” Doyoung realizes. “You guys got together while Johnny and Taeil were fighting.” He’s thinking out loud, mostly, but Jungwoo still answers him.

“Yeah, so we obviously couldn’t tell anyone then. And then when Taeil and Johnny figured their shit out, we wanted to let them have their moment, and then a good time never came up,” he shrugs.

“Does anyone else know?” Doyoung asks curiously.

“Our families, obviously. And Yukhei figured us out months ago,” Jaehyun answers, which might be the most interesting thing he’s heard tonight. And that’s really fucking saying something.

“That’s a story for a different day, though,” Jungwoo cuts in smoothly. “You know my secret, Doyoung. Now it’s your turn.”

Doyoung gives Jaehyun a wary look. He’d figured he’d be spilling this whole thing out to a complete stranger, not an almost friend. And definitely not one of Kun’s co-workers, either.

Jungwoo must understand at least a little of Doyoung’s hesitation, because he pats Jaehyun’s hand and says, “Your secrets are safe with Jae. Right, babe?”

“Right,” Jaehyun says immediately, and Doyoung gets the distinct impression that Jaehyun would kill a man if Jungwoo asked him to.

Doyoung sighs. “Fine,” he relents, and tells them everything.

(Well. Almost everything. He leaves the part out about Ten’s favor being about Jisung; that’s not something Jungwoo needs to know, and it’s irrelevant. The part that matters is that he did Ten a favor, not the content of the favor.)

“Wow,” Jungwoo breathes out, hands clasped over his chest. “Wow. Doyoung, they’re in love with you!”

Doyoung shakes his head vigorously. “Uh, no, they’re not. We barely know each other, Jungwoo. Life isn’t a fairytale for us all,” he adds, a touch bitterly.

“Fine, maybe they don’t love you, _yet_. But they clearly really like you,” Jungwoo insists.

“I don’t know,” Doyoung hedges, unable to look at the earnest as all hell expression on Jungwoo’s face any longer. He shifts his gaze to Jaehyun, who’s scowling and shaking his head. “What do you think?”

“I think,” Jaehyun says, sounding irritated, “that’s it’s amazing how good Johnny is at fucking things up when he’s trying to make them better. But also that you’ve kind of been a jerk here, no offense.”

Jungwoo squeezes Jaehyun’s arm. “Jae,” he warns. “We’re supposed to be helping Doyoung, not insulting him.”

“It’s fine, Jungwoo,” Doyoung reassures him. “How have I been a jerk?”

“You made like three assumptions where you thought the worst and that was that,” Jaehyun explains. “You didn’t talk to either of them, you rejected Ten’s attempt to apologize. You know, Kun hasn’t been himself either for the longest time now. And we haven’t seen Ten in weeks, and even Johnny’s confused by it. I get that you’re hurt, but you’re not the only one affected here.”

“Ouch,” Doyoung says, but he can’t deny the ring of truth to Jaehyun’s words. Unfortunately.

“They’re both really good people, that’s all,” Jaehyun says, much more gently this time. “And I think deep down you know that, or else you never would have accepted their invitation in the first place. Just something to think about, I guess,” he concludes, leaning back in his chair.

“Besides,” Jungwoo says, eyes dancing, “they had you in their grasp once. Don’t pretend you don’t want to be there again.”

“Jungwoo,” Doyoung groans weakly. “Stop.”

It’s easier to pretend that he doesn’t want to be wrapped up in them once again when someone isn’t reminding him of that fact, after all.

“Sorry,” Jungwoo replies, not sounding sorry at all. “I can’t believe you kept all of that inside for so long though, Doyoung. You really haven’t told anyone about it?”

Doyoung shakes his head slowly. “I tried,” he admits. “But Taeil and Yuta have been so excited lately about combining our bakeries. You know that if I told them about it, they would have called it off.”

“Oh. Yeah, you’re right,” Jungwoo says, smiling a little. Next to him, Jaehyun snorts. “I guess I understand that, but you could have at least told them you had a shitty date and needed a hug. Do you want a hug?”

“Nah, it’s alright. I think you’ve helped enough,” he says, and even thinks he means it. A fresh perspective on things might end up being useful.

 

***

 

“I hate employee meetings on such short notice,” Donghyuck whines from his spot on Jeno’s lap. “We were gonna go to a movie tonight.”

Next to them, Renjun nods in agreement, looking half asleep. Doyoung suspects he’d been asleep before coming back up to Crumbles; he’d worked the morning shift with Taeil that morning, so it’s plausible.

“It’ll be short,” Taeil says, looking like he might vibrate out of his own skin. “I just have something I wanted to talk to you guys about.”

“That implies it’s something they can put their input in about, Taeilie,” Yuta teases.

Taeil makes a face. “Point. Fine. I have something I wanted to tell you guys about. And no, it couldn’t wait,” he adds with a significant look in Jaemin’s direction. “I’m going on vacation next month. With Johnny. To celebrate our anniversary.”

“Isn’t your anniversary like in August?” Jungwoo asks. “You guys were still at each other’s throats last July.”

“No, last July was the date from hell followed by weeks of moping,” Yuta says, giving Taeil a wicked grin. It’s something Doyoung remembers vividly; he’d met Kun for the first time in the aftermath of that date, after all. He'd been shaken for days back then, he recalls. If only he'd known it was a sign of things to come.

Fuck, maybe Jaehyun’s right. Maybe he should talk to them. Maybe he _is_ the asshole here. Again. Seems to be a recurring theme where Ten and Kun are concerned.

“Mid-July was the only time we could make it work between now and January, and I'm not taking a beach vacation in the middle of the winter,” Taeil says primly. “Anyways, that’s not the real important part, we know we can handle someone being gone. We wanted to let you know that we kind of decided to use that week to ease everyone in to working together like we will in a few months.”

“What he’s trying to say is that Johnny’s people will be here helping us out that week, and maybe finishing up an order or two of their own,” Yuta continues. “Taeyong offered, and then we all kind of decided that it would be a good way for the others to kind of ease into things around here. It’s a lot different than making wedding cakes.”

Doyoung turns to look at Jungwoo before he can stop himself and sees the apprehension he feels reflected right back at him.

Well, fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello lovelies!! i will add the new relationship tag next update, i didn't want to spoil the surprise here ;) or at least, i think it was a surprise? hehehe. let me know what you thought about it/the rest of this chapter either here in a comment, [twitter](https://twitter.com/zeromiles5) or [cc](https://curiouscat.me/zeromiles5)! until next time! <3


	6. live to tell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the jaewoo tag has now been added!! now, on to the chapter...

**July (Part One)**

Taeil has been in Miami for four days now, doing almost nothing but soaking up the sun and drinking his body weight in pina coladas if his texts are to believed, and Doyoung is about at his wit’s end. Replacing one person with _five_ people? Yeah, that was a terrible, terrible idea.

First of all, even if Mark and Yukhei have each only been at Crumbles for one shift each, they caused a lot of chaos during those shifts. Sure, maybe it isn’t Yukhei’s fault that he turned Renjun into a blushing, stuttering mess by accident, but Doyoung had mentally cursed him the entire he’d had to help Renjun clean up the fifteen dozen eggs he’d dropped in the kitchen. And maybe it isn’t Mark’s fault that he’d accidentally managed to power down the register that he wasn’t supposed to even touch in the middle of their Friday lunch rush today, either. But both incidents had given Doyoung major headaches since he’d been the one left to deal with the fallout.

Second, Doyoung is legitimately happy for Jungwoo and Jaehyun, but if they don’t stop giving each other love stricken looks when they think no one is watching them, he’s going to snap and strangle them. Not at the same time, either, because Jungwoo would probably fucking think that being strangled to death at the same time as his significant other was a romantic way to go out and Doyoung isn’t about to give him that satisfaction. Not this week. Not ever. And of course Taeil had given the two of them overlapping shifts nearly every day this week, blissfully unaware of what he was doing, leaving Doyoung with no break from his suffering.

Third, the kids are acting weird even by their standards. It had started with Jaemin, who had unfortunately walked into the kitchen the first day Taeil was gone and smack dab into the middle of an awkward moment between Doyoung and Kun (which is on Doyoung, not Jaemin, but it’s just unfortunate timing) and quickly spread to the other four. Even Jisung. They’ve spent the last three days on their absolute best behavior while simultaneously acting like they’re waiting for something to happen. Donghyuck and Jeno had showed up three hours ago despite not being scheduled for today and have just been sitting around at one of the tables, as if they’re afraid to miss something. What, Doyoung doesn’t know. Which is a shame, because he would genuinely _love_ to know what the hell’s got them coming into work on a Friday afternoon of all times when they should theoretically be nowhere near Crumbles today.

Fourth, and this is the big one, being around Kun is just as awkward as Doyoung had known it would be. If not even more so. Doyoung had volunteered to take most of Taeil’s opening shifts, since Jungwoo isn’t a morning person and Yuta’s fairly well settled into a routine after all these years of working the midshift most days, without thinking much of it. Taeil, however, had either remembered himself or been reminded by Johnny how well Doyoung and Kun had worked together that one morning months ago when Kun had come to Crumbles to save his ass, and scheduled them opening together almost every day. Excluding Doyoung’s one day off this week, today’s been the only exception, but even still they’re both here at the same time – Doyoung’s closing the bakery tonight, and Kun’s here now helping Taeyong finish a couple of birthday cakes that need to be ready before the end of the day today.

Being in close proximity to Kun on a daily basis like this has been absolute hell, and is probably the reason why Doyoung’s so on edge if he’s being completely honest with himself. He hadn’t checked the schedule carefully before Taeil left, and he’d nearly dropped his keys when he’d arrived at Crumbles Tuesday morning to find Kun leaning against the wall next to the front door (even now, days later, he’s still not sure if it had been nerves or butterflies gathering in the pit of his stomach at the sight). Kun had given him a brief hello, handed him a cup of coffee that had somehow been perfect, and then proceeded to go out of his way to give Doyoung distance. Even during the early mornings in the kitchen, when they’re rushing to bake enough cookies to fill the display case before opening, Kun manages to stay at least three feet away from Doyoung at all times; the one time he’d gotten close enough for their arms to brush against each other, _Kun_ had been the one to jump away like he’d been burned. Not Doyoung. The tension between them has been building each day, too, and by now it’s thick enough to cut with a knife. It’s like a powder keg that simply needs a match to explode now.

(Maybe he does know what the kids are waiting for. They’re not stupid, and there’s no way they haven’t picked up on the weird atmosphere around Crumbles the past few days.)

It’s also impossible to ignore how reserved Kun’s acting towards Doyoung compared to how he’s acting towards everyone else. Jisung had been the only one of the kids who’d been around him for more than ten minutes at a time before the last few days, and now Doyoung’s pretty sure he’s leapfrogged him and Yuta in the race for their affections. Not that he’s bitter about it or anything or that he wants Kun to smile at him the same way he’s been smiling at the kids all week. Or, even better, smile at him _differently_ than he’s been smiling at the kids all week.

But then again, he’s not sure how he’d react if Kun did act anyway besides polite but distant towards him. Half of him thinks he’d welcome it. The other half of him thinks he’d reject it. Both halves, however, have been dwelling on what Jaehyun had said – that he’d caused this by jumping to conclusions. The more he thinks about it, though, the more he realizes that yeah, okay, maybe he _did_ jump to a lot of conclusions, but besides that one attempt by Ten to reach out to him just days later, neither Ten nor Kun have done a damn thing to try and fix things either.

Doyoung might be to blame for how messy the situation has gotten, but he’s not the only one at fault here either. That, he is certain of.

Finally, Yuta has been giving him searching looks for three days now, like he _knows_ now that Doyoung’s been keeping a lot of shit from him for god only knows how long. At this point, he thinks he’s got until the day Taeil comes home, at most, until Yuta corners him and forces him to spill his guts much like Jungwoo had. But unlike Jungwoo, Yuta won’t have to resort to blackmail and tequila. No, Yuta will just have to do that encouraging thing he likes to do sometimes where he pretends he can’t read your mind but would love to take all of your worries off your shoulders so he can bear them himself, and Doyoung will break. He wouldn’t have two weeks ago, but the last four days have pushed him about to his breaking point.

His only saving grace has been Taeyong, of all people. Sweet, guileless Taeyong, who has either not noticed the weird tension permeating Crumbles the past few days, or who has decided to pretend he doesn’t notice. Doyoung’s pretty sure it’s the second, but who really knows with Taeyong? He might genuinely believe that everything is totally fine and normal. The man’s an optimist, clearly, considering that he’d gone and whisked Donghyuck and Jeno from the front of the bakery in order to try and teach them how to make flowers out of icing that’s their go-to for wedding cakes.

Not even Doyoung has been brave enough to try and teach Jeno to be less of a disaster in the kitchen after the last incident. He’s not even brave enough to leave Taeyong alone with the two of them in the kitchen unsupervised even though the ovens are off; Jeno’s puppy eyes are fucking lethal. He might turn them on Taeyong in an attempt to learn how to bake a cake or something. If Taeil gets a call from their alarm company when he’s halfway across the fucking country, he would absolutely jump on the next flight home in order to kill them all. Of that, Doyoung has no doubt. Besides, Jaehyun and Jungwoo are in the front of the shop charming the pants off every single human who walks through the door right now. He’s literally not needed out there right now.

“What’s the point of doing it on this peg? Why not just pipe the thing right onto the cake?” Donghyuck whines, gesturing towards the sheet cake frosted with plain white icing on the workstation in front of them. “That’s what Johnny does. He let me watch once.”

Taeyong laughs a little. “Johnny has years and years of experience and might be the most skilled cake decorator in the entire city. Even I won’t pipe flowers directly onto the cake most of the time, and I’ve been working for Johnny for two years now.”

Donghyuck spins the peg contemplatively, seemingly mollified. “It seems like it’s going to be awkward though.”

“It is until you get used to it,” Taeyong admits. “But it’s also a lot of fun, too! I promise!” A snarky remark about how maybe Taeyong should rethink his career choice in favor of being a kindergarten teacher instead is on the tip of Doyoung’s tongue, but he swallows it down. Taeyong doesn’t deserve it. Not when he’s just being a genuinely good person because that’s who he is at heart.

Jeno picks his own peg up and holds it directly in front of his face. “I can really make a flower on this?” he asks.

“That’s the goal,” Taeyong confirms. “Doyoung, do you want to try too?”

Doyoung shakes his head. “I shouldn’t, just in case I’m needed up front at some point.”

Taeyong nods, understanding. “That makes sense. You can watch, though, you might pick up on something! I’m a good teacher,” he says, a touch conspiratorially, “I managed to teach Yukhei how to do this, you know.”

“What about Mark?” Doyoung asks.

The corners of Taeyong’s mouth twitch. “We’re still working on that one,” he admits. “All in due time, though! He’s getting close!”

Doyoung doubts that, but watching Taeyong patiently walk Donghyuck and Jeno through the process of piping a simple rose onto the square of parchment paper he’d had them stick to each of their pegs has him changing his mind. Donghyuck picks up on it quickly, which isn’t really a shock – the kid’s a prodigy in the kitchen, and Doyoung knows he’s already had conversations with Taeil about staying on permanently even after he finishes college in two years – but Jeno.

Jeno manages to pipe a successful rose after just three tries, and the pride and shock warring in his eyes as he holds his peg up triumphantly nearly brings tears to Doyoung’s eyes. “I did it,” he says, sounding stunned.

“You did it!” Taeyong confirms, clapping. Next to Jeno, Donghyuck drops his piping bag so he can wrap his arms around Jeno with a loud cheer, but Doyoung notices how careful he is to ensure that Jeno doesn’t drop his peg.

“Oh? What did I miss?” Kun asks from the doorway, and Doyoung’s smile slides off his face. He’d almost forgotten that Kun had left the bakery a little over an hour ago in order to go deliver one of the cakes to what is apparently one of Tiers of Joy’s best customers. His return brings the tension that Doyoung hadn’t realized had left his body in the first place flooding back.

“Taeyong’s teaching us how to make flowers!” Jeno answers, beaming. Kun makes the proper noises of surprise and awe and rushes over to take a closer look at the peg in Jeno’s hand, and Doyoung sighs and slides off the kitchen stool he’s been perched on for the last forty-five minutes. It’s probably time to go check up on dumb and dumber at the counter, anyways.

He feels multiple sets of eyes on him as he slips out of the kitchen, but no one says a word.

 

***

 

The best thing about Sundays in general is that Crumbles doesn’t open until noon, so Doyoung gets to sleep in even if he opens like he is again today. The best thing about this Sunday in particular is that Taeil’s flying back home tomorrow, which means that when Doyoung comes back to work on Tuesday after his Monday off everything will be back to normal. He’ll miss having Taeyong around, like he always does, but he’d be lying to himself if he said he wasn’t looking forward to things going back to the normal status quo.

Kun seems to be feeling the same relief as Doyoung today, too. He’s a bit less on edge while they prepare for the day before opening, and he’d brought Doyoung a donut to go along with the coffee he’d brought again this morning. He still keeps his distance, but it’s more like a foot instead of the three feet minimum it had been all week long. Most importantly, he even smiles at Doyoung once, and it’s enough to make Doyoung realize it has, in fact, been butterflies in his stomach all week whenever he sees Kun for the first time instead of nerves. Which isn’t good; liking someone isn’t enough to make them like you back, after all. It’s a lesson Doyoung had learned years ago, and he doubts the outcome will be any different this time no matter what Jungwoo thinks.

When he unlocks the front door a few minutes before they’re technically scheduled to open, Doyoung’s greeted by Jaemin and Jeno loitering on the front step. Jeno’s talking to someone on the phone, but Jaemin smiles innocently up at Doyoung.

“Hi, Doyoung,” he says sweetly.

Doyoung frowns. “Neither of you are supposed to be here today,” he says. The only people on the schedule for today besides he and Kun are Jungwoo and Jisung, actually. They don’t even have the flimsy excuse of wanting to keep whichever one of them is working today company that they’ve been using the past few days today.

“My air conditioner’s broken,” Jaemin says. “I’m going to die if I stay in my house any longer.”

“Let me guess,” Doyoung says flatly, “Jeno’s air conditioning is broken too, right? As are Hyuck’s and Renjun’s, so you couldn’t possibly go to either of their places for the afternoon, right?”

“Right!” Jaemin says completely shamelessly, even though Doyoung is certain that Jaemin knows that Doyoung knows he’s lying his ass off. “In fact, they’ll be here soon, they’re on their way right now.”

Of course they are. “If you guys are a nuisance to customers today, I will not hesitate to kick you all out,” Doyoung warns.

“Us? A nuisance?” Jaemin asks.

Jeno, apparently done with his phone call, elbows Jaemin in the side. “Cut it out, you know we can be,” he mutters, then smiles up at Doyoung. “We’ll behave,” he promises.

“You better,” Doyoung grumbles, moving to the side to let them enter Crumbles. He’s extremely suspicious of their motives for being here, but it’s not like they’ve given him a legitimate reason to tell them to go home.

Thankfully, though, they do keep their word. Even when it starts to rain and business slows to a near halt, they stay quiet and well-behaved at their table next to one of the front windows, so much so that Doyoung almost forgets they’re there.

 _Almost_ being the key word here, as the loud exclamation from Donghyuck less than an hour before closing makes it impossible for him to forget they’re there. And sure, they’ve been so slow this afternoon that they’d allowed Jisung to go home early and Jungwoo and Kun are already in the kitchen preparing to close, but they’d still promised they’d stay quiet.

“What did I tell you,” he begins, whirling around from where he’d been tidying up the back register intending to march over to their table to tell them to shut the hell up or leave. Instead, he freezes as he’s faced with the man from a couple months back — Sicheng, he thinks — leaning with one of his elbows propped up on the counter and smirking at him.

“Long time no see,” Sicheng says. “I’ve stopped by a couple of times looking for you, and you’re never here. I thought you quit,” he adds, mouth turning down into an exaggerated pout.

“I find that really hard to believe,” Doyoung remarks. He only has two days off each week. Either Sicheng is the unluckiest person in the world, or he’s lying.

Sicheng’s eyes widen. “It’s true,” he says earnestly. “One of your coworkers even told me I missed you by about ten minutes one day. It was kind of tragic. But you’re here now!”

Doyoung is more convinced than ever that Sicheng is full of shit; there is no one who works at Crumbles who wouldn’t have told him that an attractive human being had stopped by the bakery looking for him specifically. “I am here now,” he agrees. “What do you need?”

“Your number,” Sicheng says bluntly. “And for you to agree to go on a date with me, but I’ll settle for just your number if I have to.”

“I don’t know,” Doyoung hedges. The realistic part of his brain knows that giving his number to someone knew might help him put the incident with Kun and Ten behind him. But the irrational part of his brain, usually so easily ignored, is telling him to tell Sicheng to fuck off.

“Aw, come on,” Sicheng wheedles. “I promise I’ll be a gentleman until you ask me not to be anymore. No unsolicited dick pics, I swear.”

“Sicheng,” Kun yells from the kitchen doorway. He sounds pissed, and when Doyoung turns to look at him, his face is dark. Renjun stands behind him, which is a little strange considering that Doyoung didn’t even see him go into the kitchen in the first place. “What in the fuck are you doing?”

Sicheng straightens up so fast that Doyoung swears he hears the other man’s neck crack. “I could ask you the same thing,” he retorts.

“Are you fucking kidding me,” Kun says flatly. “You know why — can we talk outside for a second? That’s not a request,” he adds, when Sicheng hesitates. Doyoung watches in shock as Kun takes Sicheng by the arm and all but drags him through the bakery and outside. They don’t go far, probably because of the rain, but that just means that Doyoung can see Kun wildly gesticulating through the window.

“What’s going on?” Jungwoo asks, coming out of the kitchen to stand next to Renjun. “Why did Kun leave?”

“I have no idea,” Doyoung says honestly. “Renjun, did you go get Kun?”

Renjun nods slowly. “We thought he’d want to know that some guy was out here hitting on you,” he says, tilting his chin up almost defiantly.

Jungwoo makes a noise of approval. “Yeah, probably.”

Doyoung rolls his eyes. “I don’t think so,” he says as the front door swings open and Kun re-enters, alone. His face is red and he’s a little out of breath, like he’d just been yelling.

“I am so sorry, Doyoung,” Kun starts. “I know he probably gave you the wrong idea –”

“Wrong idea?” Doyoung echoes incredulously. “What the hell do you mean by that?”

Kun grimaces. “That, you know. He was interested in you –”

“Hold the fuck up,” Doyoung interrupts again. “Am I hearing this correctly? That I’m mistaken for thinking that someone who has come in here and blatantly hit on me twice now might be interested in me?”

Kun’s face does something that Doyoung couldn’t describe in words even if he wanted to. “Yes. But hear me out.”

“Hear you out? No, I will not hear you out, holy fuck,” Doyoung replies, his voice rising. “Listen, Kun, I know that _you_ don’t want me, but that doesn’t mean that no one else ever could!”

“When did I ever say that I didn’t want you, Doyoung?” Kun demands.

“Go lock the door,” Jungwoo tells Renjun. “Now.” It reminds Doyoung that they have a very captive audience right now, but he’s about all out of fucks to give.

“Gee, I don’t know,” Doyoung says derisively. “Maybe when you watched your boyfriend kiss me, but then told our mutual friend who walked in on us not to tell anyone about it and sent your boyfriend to over here to apologize for kissing me in the first place?”

Kun’s jaw drops. “Are you being serious right now, Doyoung? That’s what you think happened?”

“I just said so, didn’t I?”

“We told Johnny to keep his mouth shut because he’s a goddamned blabbermouth who has a penchant for sticking his nose in where it doesn’t belong,” Kun says hotly, “and we didn’t want him to complicate the situation before we could talk to you first. But I guess that was the least of our worries, huh? You managed to do that all on your own when you decided to ice us out without giving us a chance to explain ourselves,” he adds, snide. "Good job."

“How was I supposed to know that? For all I knew, you just got caught up in the heat of the moment or whatever! It wasn’t like I ever really thought there was room in your relationship for me anyways, you know,” Doyoung tells him, the confession feeling like it’s been torn clean out of him. “I had to protect myself somehow. It was better than letting you guys stomp all over my heart.”

Kun takes a step back, looking like someone just slapped him. “Doyoung,” he tries, his voice cracking.

“I don’t want to hear it,” Doyoung says. Can’t hear anymore. He already feels like he’s going to shake apart, and he knows he can’t take much more.

“Fine,” Kun acquiesces. “But this isn’t over, I promise you that. I’m – no, _we,_ Ten and I both, are going to fix this,” he swears.

“I don’t think you can,” Doyoung tells him honestly.

“Maybe you’re right. But we’re going to try. I promise, Doyoung,” he insists again.

“Whatever,” Doyoung sighs. He can’t find the energy to argue anymore. “Go home.”

Kun seems to cave in on himself. “Okay,” he says, retreating to the kitchen where Doyoung knows his wallet and keys are.

The second Kun’s out of sight, Jungwoo closes the distance between him and Doyoung to wrap him in his arms. “You’re okay,” he croons gently. “It’s okay. I promise.”

“I don’t know,” Doyoung mumbles, trying desperately not to cry. He can’t, not when Kun is still in the building.

“I’ve got you,” Jungwoo says firmly as the backdoor slams closed. “You can cry if you need to. No one here is going to judge you,” he adds.

It’s a tempting offer, but… “I’m not going to cry,” he says, resolute, but he doesn’t try to wriggle free from Jungwoo’s grasp either. It is, quite literally, the only thing holding him together right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so.......that happened, huh? /hides
> 
> come say hi/join me in my near daily johnil meltdowns lately (or yell at me, if you would prefer) on [twitter](https://twitter.com/zeromiles5) or [cc](https://curiouscat.me/zeromiles5)!


	7. jumping off the ledge

**July (Part Two)**

Taeil’s in the kitchen when Doyoung arrives for his closing shift on Tuesday, which is no surprise. As much as Doyoung’s sure that his vacation did him good – he’s tanned and glowing, so it’s obvious it did – he’s just as sure that Taeil missed being in the kitchen at Crumbles like you might miss a limb; that is to say, acutely. The brimming display case he’d spied on his way to the kitchen probably backs Doyoung’s theory up.

“Doyoung!” Taeil says, beaming. “I missed you! I brought you something from Miami, but it’s upstairs.”

“You didn’t have to,” Doyoung says, touched.

Taeil waves him off. “I got everyone something. I missed everyone. I missed Crumbles too,” he says, confirming what Doyoung had already known. “Was everything okay while I was gone?”

“Yeah,” Doyoung answers. There’s no way Taeil (and Yuta) won’t find out what happened on Sunday between he and Kun, not with the kids having been a captive audience. Doyoung may have already made an uneasy peace with himself about it, but he’ll be damned if he volunteers that information.

“See, Yuta said that too, that everything went as smoothly as it could. But I came in for a little bit last night –”

“Your flight landed at like three in the afternoon, when did you have time to come in for a little bit?” Doyoung asks incredulously.

Taeil levels him with an icy glare. “We closed at seven and I was home before five, Doyoung. I had plenty of time, but that’s not even the point. I came in for a little bit before we closed last night, and a customer came by who told me that she tried to come in for some cookies about twenty minutes before closing on Sunday, but the doors were already locked.”

“She must have been mistaken about what time it was,” Doyoung says, trying desperately to keep his expression neutral.

“Uh huh,” Taeil says, clearly not believing him. “She also told me she heard yelling coming from inside, and even though that’s normal for us, she said it sounded like someone was upset. She was very worried that something was wrong, which is why she came by yesterday apparently. To make sure everything was okay here. Are you sure you don’t know anything about that?”

“I’m certain,” Doyoung lies.

Taeil scowls. “That’s what Renjun and Hyuck both said, too,” he says, surprising Doyoung. Renjun not saying anything makes sense, but he’d thought Donghyuck for sure would have caved if Taeil questioned him. “But the customer was insistent that she was here before six on Sunday, so I don’t know what to think.”

“She probably had a lot going on and just got confused about the times,” Doyoung tries to assure Taeil. Part of him feels bad for basically calling the customer a liar when he knows she was telling the truth, but then again, she’s the one who’s being nosy as hell. If she went as far as to tell Taeil that she heard yelling, she was obviously trying to get Taeil to give her some gossip. It’s hard for Doyoung to feel bad about maligning her character at the moment.

“Sure,” Taeil says, narrowing his eyes like he knows Doyoung is lying to him. “It just seems weird, you know? Everyone’s been acting weird since we got back,” he adds, more to himself than to Doyoung. “It’s probably just my imagination though. Whatever. You can man the front of the shop today, Doie. I’m not leaving the kitchen until we close or until someone drags me out.”

Doyoung snorts. Exactly what he’d suspected, then. “Johnny will drag you out,” he says, taking his apron off its hook and throwing it over his head.

“Johnny can try,” Taeil says decisively, and Doyoung doesn’t have the heart to remind him that Johnny could literally throw Taeil over his shoulder if he wanted to. Instead, he gives Taeil a brief wave and strolls out to the front of the bakery, where Renjun is dealing with a steady stream of customers.

“Have you been alone for long?” Doyoung murmurs, nudging Renjun to the side so he can stand at the register. He generally prefers boxing cookies to cashing people out, but Renjun looks like he’s in the zone. No point in disturbing him.

Renjun shakes his head. “Hyuck went on his break like twenty minutes ago and I didn’t want to bother Taeil if I could avoid it,” he answers.

“Alright,” Doyoung says. “Thanks, by the way.” It’s a non-sequitur, but he thinks Renjun knows what he means by the way he nods a little and ducks his head. He doesn’t even try to fight Doyoung off when he ruffles Renjun’s hair, either. It’s kind of nice, as is the back hug he gets from Donghyuck when he comes back from his break.

Little by little, he can feel the tension he’s been carrying in his shoulders since Sunday afternoon slip away. Maybe things aren’t ideal right now, but they will be eventually. This, Doyoung is sure of.

 

***

 

“These are for you,” Jisung says, thrusting a bouquet of purple flowers at Doyoung a week after Taeil and Johnny come back from their trip. They look kind of like lilacs, but Doyoung knows they’re not.

“Thank you, but why?” Doyoung asks, confused.

Jisung sighs in that exasperated way only a teenager can. “They’re not from me,” he says, like it should be obvious. “Ten told me to give them to you. I didn’t even know you guys knew each other,” he shrugs.

“Oh,” Doyoung says softly, turning the bouquet over in his hands. The flowers are tied together with a ribbon that’s as blue as the night sky right after the sun goes down, and he can’t help but run it between his fingertips. It’s one of his favorite colors, which has to be a coincidence. There’s no way Ten would know that after all.

Later that night, after he pulls down a cup from his cupboard to stick the flowers in, Doyoung googles _flowers that look like lilacs but aren’t_ and scrolls through image search until he finds a picture that looks like the flowers currently sitting on his kitchen counter. They’re purple hyacinths, apparently, and Google helpfully informs him that they mean _please forgive me_.

Doyoung sighs and slams his laptop closed. As tired as he is, now is not the time to think about this.

 

***

 

There are more flowers waiting for Doyoung the next day when he gets to work. This time, they’re yellow roses, clearly delivered by a florist’s shop if the fancy vase they’re sitting in is any indication, and there’s a card taped to the side.

Doyoung sighs and pulls his phone out of his pocket to look up their meaning; after the purple flowers basically asking for forgiveness yesterday, he has no doubt that the roses also have a coded meaning.

“You’re not even going to see who they’re from?” Yuta asks from behind him. Doyoung jumps and nearly drops his phone.

“I don’t need to look,” Doyoung replies, pulling up a Wikipedia article on flower meanings.

“Did you go on a date with someone without telling me?” Yuta asks, sounding a little confused and a little hurt. Shit.

“No,” Doyoung assures him. It’s not even a lie; he hasn’t gone on a date in like months. Not since April, to be precise, but he knows that Yuta is going to want more of an explanation than that. “I had a…disagreement with someone, and they’re trying to apologize,” he settles on, moving his phone closer to his face to skim over the possible meanings for yellow roses.

_Friendship, jealousy, infidelity, apology, a broken heart, intense emotion, undying love, extreme betrayal_. At least two of those fit their current situation, Doyoung thinks.

Yuta plucks a rose out of the vase and tucks it behind Doyoung’s ear, even though the stem is way too long for that. Thankfully the thorns had been plucked off. “They must have really screwed up,” he says.

Oh, if only Yuta knew. “Yeah,” Doyoung shrugs. “They said they’d make it up to me, though.”

“This seems like a good start, yeah?” Yuta says encouragingly. “Don’t hold one of your grudges, Doie. Unless they deserve it, and in that case they can go fuck themselves.”

Doyoung laughs, caught off guard by Yuta’s bluntness. “I haven’t decided yet,” he says truthfully. The flowers are a gesture that he likes more than he would have thought before they happened; like, they’re clearly respecting his boundaries by not trying to force Doyoung to talk to them before he’s ready, but they’re also making sure he knows they haven’t forgotten about Kun’s promise. It’s…nice. “Why are you here? Dressed so nice?” he adds, waving a hand to encompass the fact that Yuta’s wearing dress pants and a button-down shirt. He honestly didn’t know Yuta _owned_ dress pants.

“We have a meeting about the merger in like half an hour,” Yuta tells him. “Johnny couldn’t get away from his place for very long today or any day this week, but it’s important, so we’re having it here. Taeil’s upstairs changing out of his work clothes right now, and Johnny should be here soon. You want to sit in on it?”

Doyoung shakes his head, probably too quickly. “I’m good.” He’s been trying not to think about how close the two bakeries merging is, not while his emotions are still so unsettled.

“Jaemin and Jungwoo are here, and the display case is full,” Yuta tries. “Crumbles will be fine if you come to the meeting for twenty minutes.”

“The office is too small for five people,” Doyoung points out, and is relieved when Yuta’s mouth forms an _o_.

Yuta wrinkles his noise. “You’re right. Damn it. Oh well, maybe next time,” he says.

Doyoung looks at the vase of roses sitting innocently on the counter. It’s probably unhygienic to keep them in the kitchen where cookies are being made, right? “Do you think it would be okay if I put these on the counter in the front?” he asks Yuta.

“Yeah, Doie,” Yuta smiles gently. “I think that’ll be okay.”

Jaemin smirks when Doyoung gets the vase down gently next to the register. “Nice flowers.”

“Be quiet,” Doyoung says immediately.

“I think they’re nice,” Jungwoo says, smiling serenely. “Ja – someone got me flowers recently. Well, a flower. Like in a pot, so it won’t die as long as I take care of it. I love it.”

Doyoung closes his eyes so he won’t roll them in Jungwoo’s face. It just figures that Jaehyun is a secret romantic.

“Well, these suckers are going to die at some point so I might as well enjoy them while they last.”

“Sure,” Jaemin says sarcastically, still smirking. The bell on the door chimes a moment later, and Doyoung watches as the smirk slips off Jaemin’s face to be replaced with – anger? – in the blink of an eye.

“What –” Doyoung starts, and freezes when Sicheng stops three feet from the counter. It wouldn’t surprise Doyoung if he could feel the anger radiating off Jaemin right now, obviously.

“What the fuck are you doing here? You’re not welcome,” Jaemin says angrily.

Doyoung closes his eyes. “Jaemin,” he tries.

“No, he’s right,” Jungwoo says, also sounding pissed. “You shouldn’t be here.”

Sicheng blinks. “Listen, I’m sorry about what happened before, but I had my reasons. I would explain, but I don’t really have time right now,” he says apologetically, glancing down at the watch on his wrist.

“Then you don’t have time to be here right now,” Jaemin retorts, raising his voice. “Get out.”

“I literally can’t,” Sicheng says. “I have a meeting here in like five minutes.”

“I literally don’t care,” Jaemin says. He’s straight up yelling at this point, and Doyoung _knows_ he should stop him. But he doesn’t. “Move the meeting before I call the cops and tell them we have a trespasser here.”

Sicheng’s eyes flash as he leans forward, invading Jaemin’s personal space. “If Taeil knew you were talking to me like this, he would fire you.”

“Wait, how do you know Taeil?” Doyoung asks, but his question is completely ignored when Jaemin leans forward himself, his head nearly knocking against Sicheng’s.

“If Taeil knew what you did last week, he would drag you out of here himself,” Jaemin snarls. He’s still shouting, and Doyoung winces.

Jungwoo puts his hand on Jaemin’s shoulder. “Jaeminnie, you need to calm down,” he says, although Doyoung can see how he’s literally clenching his other fist. It’s a little terrifying; Jungwoo’s a gentle soul, but he’s also a giant. If he was truly pissed off he could probably wipe the floor with Sicheng.

“What in the hell is going on out here?” Yuta demands, all but sprinting out of the kitchen. Taeil and Johnny stumble out after him, looking concerned. “Jaemin, back up.”

“Why are you yelling at Sicheng?” Taeil adds.

“He made Doyoung cry!” Jaemin says indignantly.

Doyoung covers his eyes with his hand. “That’s not exactly true,” he sighs. Sicheng had been the spark that ignited the powder keg between he and Kun, true, but he wasn’t actually the person who made Doyoung cry. Also, he didn’t actually cry in front of the kids, but he supposes it’s not a large leap for anyone to assume that he did break down once he’d gotten home that night.

“But it’s somewhat true?” Yuta asks shrewdly, and Doyoung thanks god that there’s no customers in the bakery right now.

Sicheng looks stricken. “He never told me you cried. He only told me that you guys argued after he made me leave.”

“I didn’t cry in front of him, you idiot,” Doyoung says, unable to help himself.

“I am so fucking confused right now,” Taeil says. “Stop talking in circles and use your words like actual adults, please.”

Doyoung shakes his head. He doesn’t even know where to start.

Jungwoo rubs his back sympathetically. “He came in here and hit on Doyoung pretty hard a couple times, including the last day you were gone, Taeil. Kun saw, and I guess they know each other so he made him leave since he was jealous, but when Kun came back inside he and Doyoung argued pretty badly.”

Jungwoo’s explanation leaves the worst of it out, although Doyoung’s sure that Johnny, at least, can put the pieces together.

Taeil frowns. “Kun was jealous of someone flirting with Doyoung? Is that why he and Ten broke up?”

Doyoung’s jaw drops. “Kun and Ten broke up?”

Taeil nods warily. “Yeah. Ten’s been staying with Johnny since the day after we got back.”

This is literally exactly what Doyoung was afraid of – they had a good thing going, and he managed to destroy it. Wonderful. “Excuse me, I have to go,” he says.

“Doyoung, wait, it’s not what you think,” Johnny interjects.

“Do you know something I don’t?” Taeil demands, turning to face Johnny with his hands on his hips. “Johnny?”

Doyoung doesn’t stick around to hear how Johnny defends himself. Instead, he dashes out of the bakery and across the street – thankfully it had been a red light, so he hadn’t needed to worry about being hit by a car – and practically wrenches Tiers of Joy’s door right off its hinges when he pulls it open.

Jaehyun’s the only one in the front of the shop, sitting on a stool behind the counter and scrolling through his phone. He looks up when he hears the door open though, and his eyes go wide when he sees Doyoung. “What’s wrong?”

“Did you know Kun and Ten broke up?” Doyoung demands. He needs to know how many people have been keeping this from him – Johnny he can forgive, but if Jungwoo knew and didn’t tell him…

“They broke up? What? Kun’s been acting totally normal though,” Jaehyun says, bewildered.

Doyoung lets out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding. “Okay. I need to talk to Kun, Jae. Please,” he adds when Jaehyun hesitates.

“He’s in the kitchen, you can go back there. Johnny probably won’t mind.”

Kun and Taeyong are washing dishes when Doyoung goes back there, and Taeyong sees him first. “Doyoung,” he says warmly, “what’s up?”

Kun freezes.

“I need to talk to Kun. Do you think you could give us a moment?” Doyoung asks.

Taeyong looks from Doyoung to Kun and back again slowly. “Sure,” he agrees, placing the sponge he’d been using to scrub a bowl out on the edge of the sink gently. “I’ll be in the front with Jaehyun.”

The kitchen is dead silent after Taeyong leaves, neither of them willing to break it. Kun still hasn’t even moved, which has to be uncomfortable for him considering he’d frozen in the middle of drying a cookie sheet.

Looks like Doyoung’s going to have to be the brave one here, then. “Did you and Ten break up because of me?” he asks quietly.

That gets Kun moving. He drops the cookie sheet to the counter with a large clatter and turns around hurriedly. Doyoung’s pretty sure he was about to take a step towards him, but changed his mind at the last second. “Yes, but it’s not what you think,” he says earnestly. “Did you get the flowers we sent you?”

“I did, and I thought they were really nice,” Doyoung admits. “But what do you mean that it’s _not what I think_? That makes no sense.”

Kun sighs a little. “I can explain. We can explain,” he amends. “But I think this is a conversation that Ten should be a part of. Would you be willing to talk to us about it? We want to do it right this time.”

Doyoung hesitates. “You guys are okay?” he says, unsure.

“We’re okay. I promise,” Kun answers, and his voice is so full of conviction that Doyoung has no choice _but_ to believe him.

“Okay,” Doyoung says, small. “We can talk.”

Kun smiles. “Thank you. Ah, I would say Ten or I would text you to set up a time and place, but…” he trails off

But Doyoung blocked their numbers months ago, he finishes mentally. “I’ll text one of you. Or both of you.”

“Okay,” Kun says, and his smile outshines the sun.

 

***

 

Doyoung goes home after he leaves Tiers of Joy, only going back into Crumbles to grab his car keys. Aside from Jungwoo cornering him in the kitchen to give him a hug before he leaves, no one says a word. It’s a little disconcerting, but he’s also grateful – talking might be the last thing he wants to do right then.

So in hindsight, it’s not really a surprise that Taeil and Yuta show up on his doorstep later that night.

“Johnny told you, huh,” Doyoung says as he lets them in. It’s not a question but Taeil answers anyways.

“Mostly, yes,” he says, toeing off his shoes. Yuta takes Doyoung by the arm and leads him over to his couch, and Taeil settles down on his other side, effectively pinning him between us.

“Why didn’t you tell us, Doie?” Yuta asks kindly. “This had to have been a lot to deal with. I knew something was wrong, I should have pushed more,” he adds, berating himself.

Doyoung grabs Yuta’s hand before he can smack himself in the forehead. “I told Jungwoo,” he tells them. “But you guys were so excited about merging the two bakeries together. I didn’t want to be the reason you decided to call it off.”

“You self-sacrificial asshole,” Taeil says, but he doesn’t sound pissed. If anything, he sounds resigned. “You really would have just suffered in silence forever, wouldn’t you?”

“Yeah.” There’s no point in lying. Not when they already know the answer. “They want to fix it, though.”

“Are you going to let them?” Taeil asks quietly.

Doyoung closes his eyes and leans into Yuta’s hold when he begins carding his fingers through Doyoung’s hair. “I’m going to let them try, I think.”

“Good,” Taeil says, and Doyoung can hear the smile in his voice.

 

***

 

Ten and Kun are already waiting for him at the coffee shop they’d agreed to meet at when Doyoung arrives ten minutes before the scheduled time. It’s a relief to see that he’s apparently not the only person feeling anxious. He knows they see him too, by the way that Ten suddenly sits up straight, but he buys a bottle of water at the register before he makes his way over to them. As good as coffee sounds right now, he’s already jittery. Caffeine is the last thing he needs.

“You look good,” he blurts out when he sits down across from Ten. “Um. Shit,” he groans, pressing his hands to his cheeks as if that will stop them from heating up.

Ten _does_ look good though. He’d dyed his hair silver sometime between the last time Doyoung saw him and now, and it suits him.

Ten chuckles. “You do too. Kun came home and whined about it every night that week he was working with you guys, you know.”

“Ten,” Kun breathes out. “I don’t think this is the right time.”

“Oh, right,” Ten says quickly. “Sorry, Doyoung.”

Doyoung shrugs. “It’s fine,” he dismisses. “But, um, you guys don’t really look like two people who broke up.” He looks pointedly down at the table where Kun has his hand covering Ten’s for emphasis.

Kun and Ten exchange a look. “I told you, we want to do it right this time,” Kun says. “With everything that happened, we thought you wouldn’t really be receptive to becoming part of an already existing relationship, which is our fault. So we’re not together anymore.” Like it’s simple, when it’s anything but.

“You barely even know me,” Doyoung points out. “How do you know I’m worth throwing however long you’ve been together away?”

Ten makes an aborted gesture towards him. “We aren’t throwing anything away, Doyoung,” he says firmly. “We’ve been together for four years, and even if this doesn’t work out, Kun and I will still be together. This won’t break us. I think you need to know that. But we’re both interested in you, and isn’t that what dating is about? Getting to know someone you’re interested in better to see if you’re compatible? We already know we are at least a little bit,” he concludes with a smirk.

Doyoung feels himself blushing again at the not so veiled reference to the last time they’d been alone together. “I literally wanted to kill you for like three months after we first met.”

“Honestly? Same,” Ten laughs. “But hate and love are closely linked, you know.”

“Okay, Nostradamus,” Doyoung snarks.

“He was a psychic, not a philosopher,” Kun says, smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

Doyoung rolls his eyes. “Whatever. You get the point, asshole,” he mutters. “What the fuck was the deal with Sicheng?”

The amused look slips off Kun’s face. “He’s my best friend. Has been since we met in college. Kind of like Taeil and Yuta, from what Johnny’s told me, we were assigned as roommates our freshman year and really hit it off. He knew them, too, although I didn’t. But he works at a bank now and is handling all of the financial stuff for the bakery merger, and Taeil said he should stop by Crumbles at some point. He did, and Taeil mentioned you, and he realized that the Doyoung Taeil was talking about was the same Doyoung Ten and I had been talking about.”

“That doesn’t explain what happened a couple of weeks ago, though. Or the other time he came in and flirted with me.”

Kun’s face goes dark. “There was another time?”

“Not the time, babe,” Ten mutters, squeezing Kun’s hand.

Kun exhales, visibly shaking it off. “Right. According to him, he was trying to either push you into admitting that you had feelings for me and Ten, or push me into actually doing something about it. Which I guess he did, but not in the way he meant to. I never meant to lash out at you like I did, Doyoung,” he says, voice full of regret.  

“I’m not going to say it was okay, but I understand,” Doyoung concedes, “and I’m sorry that I lashed out at you too. It was just a lot to deal with, you know?”

“I know,” Kun agrees quietly.

Ten sighs. “And we thought it would be Johnny who fucked things up,” he comments.

Doyoung shifts guiltily. “Well. He told me at one point you weren’t really talking to him about what happened when I asked him about it, and I thought it meant you were ashamed of it.”

An annoyed expression forms on Ten’s face. “Of course he did. Of course. Would it have killed him to _not_ be mysterious and vague for once in his life?”

“Okay, so if we do decide to do this, we need to leave other people out of it,” Kun says, resolute.

“If?” Ten echoes.

“Yes, _if_. Doyoung hasn’t said if he’ll date us or not, Ten.”

Doyoung props his chin on his hand and studies them, taking in their cautiously hopeful expressions. He’s still terrified that if this all goes wrong, they’ll break up for real and it’ll all be his fault, but he has to trust them when they say it won’t.

Maybe it’s time for Doyoung to take a leap of faith for once in his life.

“I’m in.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and we're back!! today is my birthday, so i worked hard to get this chapter finished to give y'all a gift -- that's how it works, right? XD anyways, i know the last chapter hurt y'all a lot, but i hope this makes it a little better! also, check the new chapter count -- we still have two chapters to go, there's still a lot to cover!!
> 
> come talk to me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/zeromiles5) or [cc](https://curiouscat.me/zeromiles5) and tell me your thoughts! the next update should _not_ take three weeks either, i promise <3


	8. can't leave you alone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shout out to everyone who provided when i asked for cat memes on twitter, y'all are the real mvps

 

**September**

 

“You look like you’re about to have a heart attack,” Jungwoo comments.

Doyoung jumps and drops the spatula he’d been holding, proving Jungwoo right. “I’m not,” he protests weakly.

Jungwoo rolls his eyes. “Yes, I know, you’re a young man in his prime years and you’re not actually about to drop dead of a heart attack,” he sighs, “but you do look like you’re about to jump right out of your skin. Don’t tell me that’s not possible either, Doyoung, you know what I’m trying to say,” he warns, voice going steely.

“I’ve just got something on my mind.”

“Well, no shit. Is it your boyfriends?”

“They’re not my boyfriends,” Doyoung protests again, but it feels weird on his tongue.

Jungwoo scoffs. “How many dates have you guys gone on in the last month, again? Six?”

“Five,” Doyoung mutters. Maybe six, depending on your definition of date, but personally he thinks that tagging along to a dance competition was less of a date and more of trying to support Ten and his students.

“Fine, five dates. And they’ve gone well, right?” Jungwoo prods. “You’re not just trying to save their feelings at this point, are you?”

Doyoung shakes his head. “No. Wait. No, I’m not trying to spare their feelings, because yes, they’ve gone well.”

And they have. They’ve gone to two fancy restaurants, had a cliched movie date, spent an afternoon in the park (picnic and all) and, just this past weekend, gone to some adults only charity night at the zoo which entailed walking around after hours while drinking. Each date has gone better than the last, but they’ve all been completely in public places; he hasn’t invited Kun and Ten to his apartment, and they haven’t invited him back to theirs again either. At first, it was kind of an unspoken acknowledgment of how out of control things had gotten between the three of them the last time they were behind closed doors together, Doyoung thinks, but at this point he’s pretty sure the sexual tension building between the three of them might just suffocate them all on their next date if they keep going on like this.

“Earth to Doyoung,” Jungwoo calls, snapping him out of his thoughts. “Where did you go?”

Doyoung exhales loudly. “When did you first sleep with Jaehyun?”

Jungwoo blinks rapidly. “What?”

“Never mind,” Doyoung says quickly. He hadn’t meant to ask that, not really, and if he _had_ , well, it wouldn’t have been when they were both standing in the kitchen of Crumbles with Jaemin and Jisung in the front of the bakery and liable to burst into the kitchen at any given moment.

“No, it’s fine,” Jungwoo assures him, “you just caught me off guard. Is that what’s on your mind? You guys haven’t fucked yet?”

“Jungwoo,” Doyoung hisses.

“What?” Jungwoo asks innocently. “Taking it slow is fine, you know. Lots of people do that. Jae and I didn’t, but lots of people do!”

“Please don’t actually give me any details, I didn’t mean to ask that,” Doyoung pleads.

Jungwoo smirks. “I’m actually kind of surprised you guys haven’t slept together yet, considering what happened a few months ago.”

“All of our dates have been in public places,” Doyoung tells him, “but I was considering maybe inviting them over tomorrow. But I don’t know if it’s time or what. I don’t know,” he repeats, exasperated.

Jungwoo’s expression changes into one of sympathy. “Oh, Doyoung,” he sighs, wrapping his arms around his shoulders, “maybe it’s time to stop overthinking things for a minute. Just listen to your heart. What does your heart want you to do?”

Doyoung closes his eyes and lets his head fall against Jungwoo’s shoulder. “My heart wants to invite them over tomorrow.”

“There you go,” Jungwoo says, and Doyoung can hear the smile in his voice. “Invite them over, then.”

 

***

 

**Ten** **♥**

Kun?

 

**Kun** **♥**

Yes, dear?

 

**Ten** **♥**

I just opened my lunch for today, and…

A BANANA?? REALLY??

 

 

**Kun** **♥**

First of all, how dare you use my memes against   
me

Second of all, you grabbed the wrong lunch box   
today dumbass

The banana was mine

 

**Doyoung**

Umm…is this a bad time?

 

**Kun** **♥**

No!!

 

**Ten** **♥**

Nope, what’s up babe?

 

**Kun** **♥**

I always have time for you, Doyoung ;)

 

**Doyoung**

Okay that winky face was unnecessary, Kun

We talked about this, remember

Anyways…are you guys busy tomorrow night?

 

**Ten** **♥**

I have class until like seven but that’s it, why?

 

**Doyoung**

Would you guys like to come over to my place for  
dinner tomorrow, then?

 

**Ten** **♥**

I’m cancelling my class right now, we’ll be there  
around six

 

**Doyoung**

You don’t have to do that omg

Ten

 

**Kun** **♥**

What he said

Unless you’d rather come over to our place? It’s  
probably a little bigger?

 

**Doyoung**

No one has a key to my apartment…

 

**Ten** **♥**

Soooo yeah we’ll be there around six tomorrow  
Dodo

 

**Doyoung**

We talked about you calling me Dodo too…

But see you guys then

♥

 

***

 

When Doyoung opens the door at 6:01 pm the next evening to let Ten and Kun inside, he almost chokes on his own tongue when he realizes what Ten’s wearing. “Um,” he manages.

Ten glances down. “Oh, right, I forgot to do up the rest of the buttons,” he smirks, fingering the hem of the see-through white shirt he’s wearing. “Oops.”

“And the leggings?” Doyoung says weakly.

“Didn’t bother taking them off. They’re comfy,” he says with a wink, sweeping past Doyoung so Kun can come inside the apartment. Kun, at least, is dressed almost normally – the jeans he’s wearing are tighter than normal, but the striped shirt he’s wearing is one that Doyoung has seen him wear before. Doyoung closes the door behind them, and takes a deep breath. It’s just dinner. He can do this.

(It’s not just dinner. Again. But it’s different than last time. At least this time, everyone’s on the same page here. Or so Doyoung hopes.)

“Sorry about him,” Kun says, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards, at the same time they hear Ten groan from the living area.

“Wait, you were serious about inviting us over for dinner? It wasn’t just an euphemism?” Ten whines.

Doyoung actually does choke, this time.

“I told you, babe,” Kun says, rubbing Doyoung’s back as he sputters. “ _Come over for dinner_ isn’t like Netflix and chill.”

Ten bounces back over to them, an exaggerated pout gracing his features. “I was hoping it did,” he sighs.

Doyoung can feel the tips of his ears burning. “I mean, I figured it would happen? At some point tonight?” he says, hating how his statements are coming out as questions. “But I also said I was going to cook for you guys so obviously I did.”

Kun’s eyes go dark. “Is it ready?”

Doyoung swallows so loudly he’s sure Ten can hear it despite standing three feet away from them. “Yes.”

“Is it something we have to eat right now or else it will spoil?” Kun continues, tongue darting out to wet his lips. Doyoung watches the movement helplessly, feeling entranced.

“No.”

He’s not entirely surprised when Kun backs him up against the door, but Doyoung gasps anyways, the sound cut off by Kun’s lips pressing against his.

Kun isn’t as demanding of a kisser as Ten is, but he takes control of the kiss in a way that has Doyoung sighing into it, letting Kun take whatever he wants, his knees going weak when Kun pulls away just enough to suck on Doyoung’s bottom lip.

“We’ve got you, relax,” Ten whispers into Doyoung’s ear at the same time that Kun licks into Doyoung’s mouth. “Don’t think. Just feel.”

It’s good advice, so Doyoung does just that, focusing on the way that his and Kun’s tongues slide together, slick and wet, focusing on the sensation of Ten’s hands running down his sides to grasp at his ass before one of those hands slides around his hip to palm at the fly of his jeans.

Doyoung’s eyes fly open in shock as he jerks away from the kiss, slamming the back of his head into his front door in the process. He hadn’t even realized he was hard, and he flushes as Ten lets out a laugh. “See, I told you,” he teases, his breath tickling the shell of Doyoung’s ear and making him shiver. “We’ve got you.”

Kun exhales. “Do you trust us?” he asks, and his eyes feel like they’re staring right into Doyoung’s soul. When Doyoung nods, Kun takes a step backwards.

“Wait, where are you going?” Doyoung asks, hating the edge of panic that’s in his voice. Kun smirks at him, then drops to his knees.

_Oh_ , Doyoung thinks.

“Is this okay?” Kun asks, looking up at Doyoung through his lashes. His mouth is swollen and shiny, and he looks like the epitome of sin. Ten moves his hand to grip Doyoung’s hip, and Doyoung’s pretty sure it’s meant to be encouraging.

“It’s okay,” Doyoung tells him shakily, and the look Kun gives him before tugging down his zipper sends sparks shooting down his spine. This isn’t exactly how he expected the night to go, but he’s okay with it.

 

***

 

“You’re officially our boyfriend now, by the way,” Ten remarks casually through a mouthful of the rice Doyoung had had to reheat, a grin that Doyoung already knows means he’s up to no good spreading across his face. “Kun only swallows for people he’s in a relationship with.”

Kun groans and whacks Ten across the arm with his chopsticks. “You’re so gross,” he complains.

“It’s true, though!” Ten cackles. “You didn’t swallow for me until after I’d made us Facebook official and everything. Be honest, do you like Dodo better than me?”

“Ten,” Kun snaps, shooting Doyoung a worried look like he’s concerned that Ten’s comment might bring all of Doyoung’s insecurities crashing back to the surface. If Doyoung’s being honest with himself, a month ago it absolutely would have. Two weeks ago, it might have. But now? Sitting at his tiny table with the two of them after a month of wildly successful dates and the ghost of his orgasm still lingering? Not a chance. He finally feels confident and secure in his place with them.

“You still use Facebook?” Doyoung asks.

Ten’s jaw drops. Across from him, Kun looks equally stunned. “Is that all you got from that? Really?” Ten demands.

Doyoung shrugs. “What, was there something else important in there?” he asks, pretending to be confused. “Maybe you should repeat it, just in case I missed it the first time around.”

Kun gets it first, throwing his head back and fucking _giggling_. Somehow it’s the most deadly thing he’s done tonight, and Doyoung’s pretty sure that Kun sucked his soul out through his cock half an hour ago. “Tell him that thing about him being our boyfriend again, Ten Ten.”

Understanding dawns on Ten’s face. “Ohh,” he breathes. “So yeah, Doyoung, you’re our boyfriend now. You got a problem with that?”

“Nope,” Doyoung says, looking down at his plate and grinning. “I’m good. Hey, do my boyfriends want to stay the night?”

“Of course we do,” Kun says immediately.

“Kun packed an overnight bag and everything just in case you asked,” Ten adds, laughing again when Kun sighs and covers his face. “He’s always prepared. Like the Boy Scout he used to be,” Ten tells Doyoung, a touch conspiratorially, and Doyoung can’t help but laugh himself when Kun whacks Ten on the arm with his chopsticks for a second time.

They’re loud, louder than Doyoung is used to outside of Crumbles, and it’s going to be an adjustment. But it’s an adjustment he’s willing to make, he thinks fondly as he watches them squabble like a couple of children. Without a shadow of a doubt.

 

***

 

“Aha!” Johnny shouts the second Doyoung opens the back door to Crumbles for his closing shift. “It _was_ you!”

Doyoung gives him a blank look. “I have no fucking idea what you’re on about, but shouldn’t you be at your own bakery? It’s not lunch time.”

“I took a late lunch today,” Johnny informs him. “I had to be here when you got here to see if Kun got attacked by a vampire last night or if it was you that attacked him.”

“And?” Doyoung asks, shoving his lunch bag in the fridge. Kun had woken up early and apparently snuck out to the closest supermarket, because by the time that Doyoung and Ten had staggered out of bed there’d been three lunches stacked neatly on his kitchen counter.

“You look super fucked out, so I’m assuming you were the wild beast that attacked him since Ten doesn’t usually leave visible marks.”

Doyoung slams the fridge close and turns to glare at Johnny. “I’m kind of disturbed you know that, I’m not gonna lie.”

“We’ve been best friends since we were five years old! I know everything about him, even the stuff I don’t want to know, and I’ve been working with his boyfriend for two years now! Of course I know where he leaves marks!” Johnny says, getting way more worked up than the question really warrants in Doyoung’s opinion.

Doyoung tilts his head and studies him. He looks a little stressed, Doyoung realizes, and he did have an explanation for his presence at Crumbles on the tip of the tongue when Doyoung asked him about it...

"No one’s telling you anything, huh,” he says smugly as he pulls his apron off its hook.

“No!” Johnny whines. “It’s obvious they were with you last night, because of how you all look and because I stopped by their apartment last night and no one was home, but that’s it and it’s driving me crazy!”

Doyoung mentally pats himself on the back for having the foresight to decline Kun’s offer to have him come over instead. “Suffer,” he says gleefully, tying his apron strings tight across his waist. One of the strings bite into a bruise someone’s hands had left on him last night, but – it feels nice, so. He leaves Johnny in the kitchen, sputtering, and hooks his chin over Taeil’s shoulder when he finds him at the register. “Please go rein in your boyfriend,” he pleads.

Taeil chuckles. “I told him that his plan wouldn’t work,” he replies quietly, smiling brightly at a customer as he hands him two boxes of cookies. Once the customer leaves, Taeil turns around, dislodging Doyoung’s head from his shoulder. “You look happy, Doie.”

“I am happy,” Doyoung admits, smiling.

“You deserve it,” Taeil tells him firmly, “and I’m so happy for you. You don’t need to tell me, either. I can just tell,” he adds, likely in response to the confused look Doyoung knows he has on his own face.

Doyoung bites down on his lower lip. “Don’t tell Johnny?” he asks.

“Of course not,” Taeil promises, laughing. “I mean, tell Johnny what?” he corrects himself, winking at Doyoung. “If you don’t mind hanging out front until Donghyuck gets back from his break, I’ll go chasse him away.”

“Sounds good,” Doyoung says, stretching his arms above his head. Taeil shoots him finger guns like the dork he is before leaving him alone with just his thoughts and a mostly full display case, and Doyoung already knows that this may be the only moment of peace he gets all day. Might as well savor it while it’s here.

 

***

 

**Doyoung**

Thanks for lunch, Kun. It was great

 

**Kun** **♥**

You’re welcome!

See, Ten, SOMEONE appreciates me

 

**Ten** **♥**

Pretty sure I showed you both last night how much  
I appreciate you, Kun Kun

 

**Doyoung**

You did.

 

**Ten** **♥**

SEE?

 

**Kun** **♥**

Anyways…

Doie, you’ll be done with work around eight, right?

 

**Doyoung**

Yeah, why?

 

**Kun** **♥**

If you want to come over when you’re done, I’ll have   
dinner ready by the time you get here…

Only if you want, though!! We understand if you just   
want to go home!

 

**Doyoung**

Sounds like a plan to me.

See you guys around 8:30.

 

**Kun** **♥**

 

**Ten** **♥**

Someone better pick up more lube before tonight  
then lol

Not it!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just one chapter left!! at this point i can no longer make promises about how long it'll take me (asdfjlks pls forgive me) but it prob won't be that long!
> 
> come say hi to me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/zeromiles5) or [cc](https://curiouscat.me/zeromiles5)! i love talking to you guys and would love to know what you think about the chapter!
> 
> (ps. sorry not sorry for using h2h lyrics for the chapter title lmfao)


	9. ever after

**November**

“You have paint on your nose,” Ten says, tapping Doyoung on his cheek with a fingertip. “Didn’t know you were so clumsy.”

“I’m not,” Doyoung grumbles, shifting in an attempt to get comfortable on the couch without just laying on Ten like he really wants to. If he does, he’ll fall asleep, and it’s not even seven yet. It’s way too early to sleep. “Fucking Jaemin did it when I wasn’t paying attention.”

Ten laughs at that. “That makes more sense. He’s a sly one, you know you have to be on guard around him, Dodo.”

“I know,” Doyoung sighs. “Trust me, I know.” He’s been working with Jaemin for almost a year and a half now, had to deal with him being at Crumbles constantly for well over a year before then, he knows that Jaemin’s generally up to no good half the time. The kid is the literal definition of chaotic neutral, even moreso than Ten himself. He wishes he could tell Ten about the betting pool, but he and Kun have sworn not to tell him about it, lest they gain insider knowledge that, in Jaemin’s words, would be ‘totally unfair’.

“Aww,” Ten coos, pressing an obnoxiously loud kiss to Doyoung’s forehead. “Is my baby tired? I told Kun not to let them put you on painting duty again.”

“I’m not your baby, and I offered,” Doyoung answers, trying not to pout a little. Kun had, admittedly, tried to pull Doyoung off painting duty, arguing that his organizational skills would be best suited to unpacking the boxes and boxes of equipment and baking supplies in the kitchens. But doing so would have left only Taeil and Donghyuck to paint the walls of the greatly expanded seating and register area, and there was no way Doyoung was going to let that happen. Not only are they both tiny, but Taeil is way too susceptible to Donghyuck’s schemes. Nothing would have gotten done.

“Of course you did,” Ten says, and it sounds fond. “Suddenly I understand why Kun said he had to make an emergency stop at the grocery store. Did he tell you to come here too instead of going home to your own apartment?”

“Yeah, but I was going to come here anyways,” Doyoung admits, giving up the fight and letting his head fall onto Ten’s shoulder. It’s better than his lap, at least, because Ten moves around enough that he likely will get disturbed before he could ever fall asleep in this position. Now that Ten has had a heart to heart with Johnny about calling before he comes over and gotten Taeil to try to enforce it, Doyoung’s been spending at least five nights a week here rather than at his own apartment. He’s well aware that he’s basically paying for a storage unit with amenities at this point, but he can afford it and his lease isn’t up for another four months yet. He’s got time.

 _They’ve_ got time.

Ten hums and pets Doyoung’s hair. “Five days until the grand re-opening event, right? Do you guys still think you’ll be done on time?”

Doyoung yawns. “Yeah,” he mumbles, words muffled by Ten’s shoulder. “We can probably get it done in two more days if no one slacks off.”

In a perfect world, they wouldn’t have had to cram in the renovations that were needed to combine Crumbles’ building with that of the tea shop next door in the two weeks between Halloween and Thanksgiving. Taeil and Johnny, however, had come to the conclusion sometime in mid-September that if they didn’t get it done now they’d have to wait until at least January but potentially March, and no one had wanted to wait that long when there was a window of opportunity. Luckily, the first four days of construction had been confined to the building next door, and the needed changes in Crumbles’ building had taken less time than they’d been quoted. It meant they were able to get in there and start finishing everything up days earlier than anticipated, and it also hopefully means they’ll all get another few days off before Crumbles opens for business again next week.

“I’m sure you’ll make sure that doesn’t happen,” Ten laughs. “You can take a nap,” he adds. “I’ll wake you up when dinner’s ready.”

“I’m not going to fall asleep, Ten,” Doyoung protests, even as his eyes flutter closed. “You don’t stay still enough.”

Ten laughs again, but it’s a lot softer this time. “Okay, baby,” he agrees.

 

***

 

“—not to let him paint again today,” Ten’s saying in a whispered kind of hiss when Doyoung wakes up. He’s not sure how long it’s been, because it was dark out when he fell asleep already, but he has the distinct feeling it hasn’t been _that_ long. He’s still propped up against Ten’s shoulder, which means he must have been really, really fucking tired if he managed to actually fall asleep like this.

“You know how he gets when he sets his mind to something,” Kun argues, also at a whisper. “He said Taeil and Donghyuck were too short to be left alone out there and took a paintbrush right out of Taeil’s hand. If I had tried to stop him after that, I’d be sleeping on the couch tonight and we both know it.”

“I would have gone home,” Doyoung mumbles, tongue heavy with sleep. He rubs his face into Ten’s shoulder and hears someone make a soft noise. Whatever.

“Ten still would have put me on the couch after he heard why you went home,” Kun says, and he’s probably right. “Dinner’s ready, though. I made hot pot.”

“Is that why you went to the grocery store?” Doyoung asks, sitting up. It’s a struggle, and he kind of just wants to go back to sleep, damn it, but hot pot. That’s worth standing up for.

Kun nods, holding out a hand to Doyoung to steady him. “Yeah, I needed a couple things. I figured it would make you smile, though.”

“Hey, don’t take all the credit here,” Ten whines. “I was the one who told you to get that bread for in the morning.”

An irritated expression flashes briefly over Kun’s face, and Doyoung can see how he sticks his tongue into his cheek before he sighs and says, “I wanted that to be a surprise, Ten.”

“Oops,” Ten says guilelessly. “My bad! Let’s eat.”

Kun hands Ten his bowl last in a rare show of pettiness, but Doyoung gets his bowl first so it’s not like it’s his problem. They also refuse to allow him to help with the dishes, even though Doyoung is generally a staunch believer in the simple fact that whoever cooked dinner—Kun, obviously—should be off dish duty. Instead, they banish him to the bathroom to shower, and by the time he emerges, face red from the heat of the water, they’re both in their pajamas and cuddling on the couch.

“Want in?” Ten asks, holding his arms open.

Doyoung considers it. A cuddle pile on the couch with his boyfriends is always a good time, but he’s dead on his feet. “I’d rather go to bed,” he admits.

Ten and Kun exchange a brief look before Ten stands up. “Bedtime it is, then,” he says cheerfully. Kun’s a bit slower to get up, probably just as tired as Doyoung himself is, but he nods in agreement.

“We could probably all use an early night,” Kun says as Ten takes Doyoung’s hand to tow him to the bedroom.

“Speak for yourself,” Ten retorts, but he’s the first one to flop down on the bed. Doyoung can’t help but shake his head, but Ten wouldn’t be Ten if he wasn’t a prickly bitch at every turn.

Kun eventually drags Ten into the bathroom to brush his teeth, and Doyoung settles himself in the center of the bed while he waits for them to return. The mattress is comfortable, much more comfortable than the one at his own apartment, and he’s on the verge of falling asleep again when he feels the mattress dip next to him.

“I’m not letting you paint again tomorrow,” Kun murmurs, kissing Doyoung softly before curling up next to him. It’s chaste, but Doyoung falls asleep with a lingering smile on his lips before Ten even turns out the light.

 

***

 

Taeil is stressed out. Actually, saying that he’s stressed out might be an understatement—the man is literally more stressed out than Doyoung has ever seen him, and that includes the first couple of weeks after he’d met Johnny. He’s going to wear a fucking path in the tile of Crumbles’ newly expanded kitchen if he keeps pacing like this.

“It’s just a community event,” Doyoung says, a little confused. “We all go out there wearing our nice clothes, we rub elbows with our clients and Johnny’s clients, we pass out free cake and cookie samples and then kick everyone out after two hours. We’ve done this before.”

“There’s a lot more at stake tonight, though,” Taeil says, looking wild around the eyes. “A _lot_ more,” he repeats.

Yuta knocks his heels against a cupboard from where he’s perched on one of the counters. “Maybe so, but working yourself up into a panic attack won’t make it better Taeilie. It’ll make things worse. Do you want to scare everyone and maybe even get the event called off?” he asks shrewdly.

Doyoung winces a little—such a statement would undoubtedly make him freak the fuck out were someone to be that blunt with him, but Taeil sighs and visibly pulls himself together. “Right. You’re right. I don’t want Johnny to think...I don’t want Johnny to worry,” he says, patting the pocket of his jacket almost absent-mindedly.

“Attaboy,” Yuta says, grinning. “Put your game faces on, I think I hear the kids.”

Sure enough, the kids crash into the kitchen a second later, led by Jeno with Donghyuck on his back. Donghyuck’s apparently gotten a haircut since the last time Doyoung saw him three days ago, but it looks good, luckily for him; Yuta might have strangled him otherwise.

“There are already people waiting outside,” Jaemin announces, bringing up the rear. “Like, a lot of them. I’m kinda nervous now.”

“You haven’t been nervous about talking to strangers a day in your life,” Renjun sighs.

Jaemin grins. “Maybe I was just trying to make the people who are nervous feel better, Junnie. Did you ever think of that?”

“What, by lying to their faces?”

“Enough,” Yuta says, but he’s laughing. “Did you guys see if everyone else is here yet?”

“I saw everyone but Johnny but I assume he’s here,” Donghyuck says, sliding off Jeno’s back. The shirt he’s wearing has three buttons undone, and Doyoung’s fingers itch with the urge to button at least one of them up, if not two. Not that he looks bad, but—he’s a baby still in Doyoung’s eyes, is all.

“I’ll go look for him,” Doyoung offers. It should be Taeil’s job, really, but Taeil still looks like he’s ready to shake out of his own fucking skin still. Being left alone with the chaos that the kids bring with them at all times might be good for him, and if he finds Jungwoo he can send Jungwoo into the kitchen as well.

The second, new kitchen is at the end of a hallway, a little separate from the rest of Crumbles. They’d intentionally designed it that way after Johnny had explained that sometimes a tour of the kitchen will convince hesitant clients to enter into a contract with them for their wedding cakes, but Doyoung has a feeling it will be used as more of a storage unit than anything else. If they had really intended to have a kitchen for cookies and a kitchen for cakes, they wouldn’t have nearly doubled the size of the old kitchen during the renovations, after all. Doyoung’s almost positive he’ll find Johnny in the new kitchen, but it’s a surprise to see Ten at the end of the hallway with a bouquet clutched in his hands. Peonies, he thinks; he’s gotten a lot more familiar with flowers lately, since Ten loves to bring them home for he and Kun.

“I didn’t know you were here already,” Doyoung says, surprised.

Ten startles, but when he turns around he’s smiling. His hair’s pushed back from his forehead, and Doyoung swallows hard. “Of course I am,” he answers. “This is a big night for literally all of my favorite people, and I figured Johnny needed the moral support.”

“Are the flowers for us?” _Us_ being he and Kun, of course, but he doesn’t think Ten needs him to be specific.

“No, actually,” Ten says, kind of awkwardly. “They’re for Johnny. He’s a nervous wreck, so hopefully they make him smile.”

“Taeil is too, even though we’ve done this before,” Doyoung sighs. “Taeil is also wondering where Johnny is because it’s almost time to start. Is he in there?”

“I’m assuming so, Kun said he wandered off this way,” Ten says, and shoves the door open without preamble. Johnny is, in fact, in there, pacing much like Taeil had been before Yuta had gotten him to stop. “Johnny.”

Johnny’s head snaps up. “Ten. And Doyoung,” he says. “Is everything okay?”

“Pull yourself together, Johnny. For fuck’s sake,” Ten sighs, laying the peonies down on the island in the center of the kitchen so he can try to fix Johnny’s wreck of a hair. “Everything is going to go fine. _Everything_ ,” he emphasizes.

Doyoung doesn’t miss the hesitant look Johnny sends his way. “Ten...”

“Oh, hush,” Ten says, stepping back. “Your event starts in ten minutes, and if you don’t chill the fuck out, Taeil is going to know something is up. Is that what you want?”

“N-no,” Johnny stutters, looking at Doyoung again.

Doyoung gets the hint. “I’ll leave you alone, but seriously, Taeil’s going to start looking for you himself soon,” he warns Johnny.

“Five minutes,” Ten promises. “Go find Kun, he looks good.”

Kun always looks good, Doyoung thinks as he leaves them behind, but Ten’s right. He looks extra good tonight, wearing a suit with a crisp white shirt underneath. He’s got his feet propped up on one of the tables, like he’s daring Taeil or Taeyong to come tell him off, and his head tipped back and his eyes closed. There’s already a ton of noise around him, the kids having left the kitchen to go bother Mark and Jaehyun, but he looks unbothered.

“You’re going to be swarmed by everyone tonight,” Doyoung tells him, quiet but honest. Kun cracks an eye open and smirks.

“Yeah, that’s what Ten said. He almost didn’t let me leave the apartment looking like this.”

Doyoung gives him a blatant once over, lingering on the way his pants cling to his thighs. “I can’t say I blame him, but god am I glad you won that battle.”

Kun’s smirk stays firmly in place as he says, “Come home with us tonight?”

“Of course,” Doyoung promises.

A piercing whistle cuts through the noise in the room, and when Doyoung turns around to find the source of it he sees Yuta standing with his hands on his hips in front of the new display cases. “Five minutes,” he shouts. “Everyone get your asses into the kitchen to get your trays, and remember: be on your best behavior. I will kill you if you ruin this,” he threatens, and Doyoung doesn’t think he’s kidding.

“Here goes nothing,” Kun murmurs, squeezing Doyoung’s hand as he swings his legs off the table. “Let’s get ready to mingle.”

“You’re not funny,” Doyoung tells him, but he laughs anyways.

 

***

 

Maybe it’s because of Yuta’s threats, but the event goes off almost without a hitch. The only obvious stumble is Mark dropping a nearly empty tray that avoided hitting anyone’s feet, and even if anyone else saw Doyoung drag Yuta away from an overenthusiastic crowd of older women, he’s pretty sure no one would have been that bothered. Because they would have also seen the way Yuta had kind of just...sagged in relief after, so.

Sicheng had been there, too, which theoretically wasn’t a surprise considering his connections to both the business merger and to Kun himself, but kind of had been due to the glares the kids still shoot him whenever he dares venture inside. Even though Doyoung has told them that he and Sicheng have long since cleared the air (it’s awkward, but he’s trying, for Kun’s sake) they seem hell bent on holding a grudge, and. Well. Doyoung’s tried, what else can he do?

“That went well, I think,” Ten says, dropping down onto Kun’s lap. “Jaehyun said you guys booked three new consults already.”

“Four, actually,” Taeyong says, sitting down on the empty chair next to Doyoung. “And Johnny just told Taeil he expects to get more calls tomorrow, too.”

“That’s good,” Doyoung says, resting his head against the table. His feet hurt and he kind of wants to go home, but Yuta had demanded that everyone stay for a post event debrief. Not that he would leave right now even if he could; he has a bet to win.

Yuta whistles again, this time with a bottle in each hand. “I have regular champagne for us grown-ups, and some non-alcoholic sparking grape juice for the kids in the room,” he announces. Next to him, Taeil looks like he’s just seen a ghost, but he nods along.

“What’s up with Taeil?” Ten murmurs, leaning close to Doyoung’s ear.

“It’s been a long day,” Doyoung tells him, standing up. “Let’s go get some champagne before Yuta kills us all.”

“He wouldn’t really, would he?” Ten asks.

“Best not to take your chances,” Kun answers, nudging Ten in the side. “Up.”

The kids grumble about having to drink the grape juice, and Doyoung sees Jaemin giving Mark’s glass of actual champagne sneaky looks, but he ignores it in favor of paying attention to Yuta when he holds his glass up in the air.

“I’d like to propose a toast,” he says. “To friendship, to love, to taking chances,” he continues, winking at Doyoung, “to new adventures, and to new beginnings.”

Doyoung has to try hard to keep from rolling his eyes as he watches Jaehyun and Jungwoo make cow eyes at each other during the toast. The way they orbit each other is insanely obvious, and it’s really too bad that not enough people know about them to make a second betting pool on when they slip up and reveal their relationship to everyone else. His money would be on two weeks, and he just _knows_ he’d win that one.

Taeil sets his glass down on the table closest to him. “Speaking of new beginnings,” he says, looking at Johnny. He takes a deep breath, and then drops to one knee.

Kun groans almost imperceptibly next to him. He’d been one of the two people to place their bet on neither of them choosing to do something as cheesy as proposing to the other tonight, for some reason, as if he didn’t know Johnny better. As if he didn’t know Taeil better.

“Wait. Wait. Taeil,” Johnny says, holding out a hand. Taeil blinks up at him, looking hurt, but before he can stand up Johnny _also_ gets down on one knee. “Did you—”

“You, too?” Taeil chokes out.

Doyoung smiles smugly. “I win,” he whispers, just loud enough for Kun to hear. Kun groans again, this time loudly enough that Ten, on Kun’s other side, turns to give him a sharp look.

“Me, too,” Johnny says, sniffling. “I wanted to surprise you, but you surprised me first.”

“Yuta and I planned it,” Taeil tells him, reaching inside the same pocket Doyoung had watched him pat earlier in the evening. “But I should have known.”

Johnny reaches into his own pocket. “You first.”

“I had a speech planned but you made me forget it,” Taeil admonishes him. “But. Johnny, will you marry me?”

“Only if you’ll marry me too,” Johnny replies, holding a ring box out to Taeil. Taeil takes the ring from the box and slides it onto his own finger, and the room erupts into cheers. Well, almost the entire room does; Taeil breaks down into tears, and Yuta joins him almost immediately. Doyoung expected nothing less out of the two of them, however.

“Jaemin,” Doyoung shouts once Taeil and Johnny have finally pulled themselves together and stood up. “Are you forgetting something?”

Ten gives Doyoung a sharp look. “You didn’t.”

“We all did,” Kun says sheepishly. “But Doyoung’s the only one who won.”

“You all bet on whether or not they’d get engaged today,” Ten says flatly.

“Yeah, and I won two hundred and fifty bucks,” Doyoung says gleefully. “Jaemin?” he repeats.

Donghyuck makes a whiny sound. “I thought I had it,” he says sulkily.

“I’m suddenly less mad,” Ten says when Jaemin hands Doyoung an envelope stuffed full with bills.

Taeil comes up behind Doyoung and wraps his arms around his waist. “I’m not mad at all,” he sighs happily. “I’m so happy. I didn’t know I could be this happy.”

“You sap,” Yuta says, suddenly turning it into a group hug, but he’s still crying so Doyoung thinks he’s not really one to fucking talk. “Doie, did you really bet on both of them proposing at the same time?”

“I did.”

“Nice,” Taeil says, squeezing Doyoung even tighter. “Buy us a nice wedding gift with that money.”

Doyoung sighs dramatically. “Fine,” he says, as if he wasn’t already planning on doing just that. “I’m so happy for you, Taeil.”

Taeil presses a kiss onto his cheek. “Love you, Doie.”

“If I tell you I love you too, will you let me go?”

Taeil nods.

“I love you too, then,” Doyoung tells him.

Taeil sniffles one last time, then lets go of Doyoung and shoves him right into Ten. He stumbles, but Ten’s quick to steady him. Thank god for his dancer reflexes.

“Hey, Doyoung?” Ten says, so quiet that Doyoung can barely hear him over the noise in the room. “Move in with us.”

Doyoung pulls back so he can look Ten in the eyes, then at Kun, still standing next to him. “Are you guys sure? It hasn’t been that long.”

Kun shrugs. “When you know, you know. New adventures, right? Move in with us,” he echoes. "Please?"

“Okay,” Doyoung agrees. “Not until after the holidays, but, yeah. I’ll move in.”

If Ten’s cheer in celebration is ear-shattering, then Kun’s smile is heart stopping. “Good.”

 

***

 

New beginnings mean uncertainty. There’s no guarantee that anything that they’re celebrating tonight will work out—the bakeries might fail now that they’ve been combined (unlikely, but nothing is impossible). Taeil and Johnny might become a divorce statistic one day. Doyoung might not be able to tolerate living with two people, even if he loves them. Nothing’s set in stone. But hope has built many a solid foundation over the years, and not even Doyoung’s pessimistic side truly believes this—any of this—is going to go badly.  

What he does know now is this: the people in this room are his family, in one way or another, and he’s looking forward to seeing what the future has in store for them all. Right now, it seems like it’s going to be pretty damn bright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and that's a wrap for doyoung's story, y'all. not going to lie, i cried while writing this, just a little. it's been a long journey to get here, and everyone gets their happy endings. it's what they all deserve.
> 
> this isn't the end of this series, but it IS the end for now. i've spent the last six months in writing almost solely in this universe, and even though i love it and the characters in it with my entire heart (and absolutely still want to tell jaewoo's story, in one way or another) i also have other stories i want to write separate from this universe. so, yeah, this isn't goodbye to Crumbles, it's a see you later. promise.
> 
> finally, thank you to everyone who's given this series love and support. it's meant so much to me, like i can't even put it into words. i hope the ending lived up to your expectations <3 please let me know what you thought, either here in the comments, on [twitter](https://twitter.com/zero__miles), or in a [cc](https://curiouscat.me/zero__miles). and thank you all again, from the bottom of my heart.


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